HIN Sotheany
Pseudonym: 2-TCW-1042
Cases: Case 002/02
Category: Witness
Hin Sotheany testified as a witness in Case 002/02 about her qualifications and methodology in creating the S-21 OCIJ Prisoner List
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, a spreadsheet of 15,101 incoming prisoners arrested and detained at Tuol Sleng prison also known as S-21.
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Hin received her bachelor's degree in law from the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh in 2006.
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She worked for the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) from 2004 to 2012 before joining the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia as an analyst consultant for the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges (OCIJ) from 2014 to 2016 where she was tasked with creating the S-21 OCIJ Prisoner List.
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The Nuon Chea Defence objected to the reliability of the S-21 OCIJ Prisoner List, arguing that it was inaccurate because the majority of the individuals on the list were only registered at S-21 before being sent to Prey Sar, Kampong Chhnang and other re-education centres,
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and that the Chamber could not use the list to make any findings other than those related to the number of people registered at S-21.
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Hin relied on 817 key documents, out of the 13,383 contemporaneous documents from the DC-Cam and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Archive
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she reviewed, to create the S-21 OCIJ Prisoner List.
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She said that she focused mainly on prisoner entry lists and that her review did not encompass prisoner photographers or S-21 staff statements.
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While she included 5,512 execution dates, she did not review all the available data on the number of the deaths. The number of the execution dates, according to her, stemmed from an incomplete analysis of the available information.
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While reviewing the lists of incoming prisoners from 1976 to 1979, Hin did not complete a full review of execution lists from this time period.
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The Trial Chamber relied on Hin’s testimony in finding that her analysis of executions was only partial,
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that the S-21 OCIJ Prisoner List was an analytical tool rather than independent evidence
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and that Hin appeared to have testified truthfully as to both her methodology and experience.
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