Today, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia issued its Considerations on Appeal against the International Co-Investigating Judge’s Order on the Admissibility of Civil Party Applicants in Case 004.
On 28 June 2019, the International Co-Investigating Judge issued his Closing Order in Case 004, and, by a separate order, decided on the admissibility of all remaining Civil Party applications pursuant to Internal Rule 23bis.
Following the Chamber’s issuance of the Considerations on Appeals against the Closing Orders in Case 004 on 17 September 2021, the Pre-Trial Chamber examined the Appeal brought by the Civil Party applicants whose applications had been rejected by the International Co-Investigating Judge’s Order.
In Case 004, 2,014 people have filed Civil Party applications since the beginning of the investigation (para. 4).
In its Considerations, the Pre-Trial Chamber unanimously found the Appeal admissible (para. 31) and clarified the legal principles governing admissibility of Civil Party applications before the ECCC (paras 32-39).
However, on the merits of the Appeal in the Case at hand, the affirmative vote of at least four judges was not achieved (para. 40).
The National Judges found that all applications in Case 004 should be rejected since they are of the view that “the ECCC has no personal jurisdiction over YIM Tith”, that they concluded Case 004 and “sent the Case File to be held at the ECCC archives” (paras 41-44).
The International Judges examined the Appeal and the applications on their merits. In conclusion, the International Judges found that the International Co-Investigating Judge erred in his decision on admissibility under Grounds 1(3), 2, 3 and 4, in that 14 additional victims should have been found admissible as Civil Parties in Case 004 (para. 136).
The Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision is available at:
https://eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/documents/courtdoc/%5Bdate-in-tz%5D/D384_7_EN.pdf