Office of the Co-Prosecutors : Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

The OCP is an independent office within the ECCC. It carries out its duties free from any interference, governmental or otherwise. Its role is to prosecute senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge and others most responsible for the crimes committed during the period of Democratic Kampuchea. It conducts preliminary investigations, prosecutes cases throughout the investigative, pre-trial, trial and appellate stages, processes victim complaints, and participates in judicial investigations. The OCP is co-headed by a Cambodian and an international Co-Prosecutor and is staffed by both national and international personnel and interns.

The Co-Prosecutors

The Agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Cambodia (which established the ECCC) provides for a Cambodian prosecutor and an international prosecutor, serving as co-prosecutors. The national co-prosecutor is appointed by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, and the international co-prosecutor is appointed by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy of Cambodia upon nomination by the United Nations Secretary-General.


National Co-Prosecutor: Chea Leang		International Co-Prosecutor: Mr. Andrew T. Cayley
Ms. Chea Leang was born and raised in Cambodia. She underwent legal training in Germany between 1988 and 1995, earning a masters degree in law from Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. In 1995, Chea Leang returned to Cambodia to practice as a Deputy in the Office of Legal Training of the Ministry of Justice, where she served for seven years. During her tenure, she sat as a member on the Cambodian Committee for the Penal Code. In January 2002, she was appointed a Prosecutor in the Cambodian Court of Appeal. On 7 May 2006, Chea Leang was appointed as the National Co-Prosecutor of the ECCC. Chea Leang is trilingual, speaking Khmer, German and English.		Mr. Andrew T. Cayley (United Kingdom) was appointed as international Co-Prosecutor on 27 November 2009. Prior to joining ECCC, Mr. Cayley held a private practice, defending Charles Taylor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone and Ivan Cermak before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. From 2005-2007 he served as Senior Prosecuting Counsel at the International Criminal Court and in that capacity was responsible for the Darfur investigation and subsequently for the first Darfur case against Ahmed Harun and Ali Kushayb.From 2001-2005 he served as Senior Prosecuting Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) where he was responsible for the continuing investigation against Colonel General Ratko Mladic and led the first international prosecution of members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Prior to this he served as Prosecuting Counsel at ICTY from 1995-2001, the first three years being seconded from the British army by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to the ICTY. Subsequently being permanently recruited by the ICTY, in 1998, he appeared as Prosecuting Counsel in five trials over six years including the first trial for events in Srebrenica in July 1995. Mr. Cayley holds an LL.B and and LL.M. from University College London and is also a professional officer graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Capacity Building

The OCP currently employs twenty-seven national and international staff members working in various capacities including as prosecutors, deputy prosecutors, assistants, investigators, analysts, researchers, greffier, information management personnel and interpreters. It also accepts eight international and four Cambodian interns to assist in the performance of its mandate. In addition, trainee judges from the Cambodian Royal Academy for the Judicial Professions have been seconded to the OCP for short-term internships on a rotating basis. All the members of this OCP participate in regular training to build their skills in areas relevant to their jobs. In August 2007 and July 2008, for example, the OCP participated in workshops on international criminal law conducted by some of the foremost practitioners from around the world.