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Southeast Asia
Judge in Khmer Rouge Leader Case Killed
2003-04-23
A Cambodian judge who last year sentenced a notorious Khmer Rouge commander to life imprisonment was killed by gunmen Wednesday, police said. Two unidentified men on a motorcycle pulled alongside Judge Sok Setha Mony's car at an intersection in the capital and opened fire, said Heng Pov, deputy police commissioner of Phnom Penh. Witnesses reported hearing five shots.
That sounds pretty dead.
It sounds like downtown Karachi, too. Wonder if the shooters were Paks?
Sok Setha Mony had on Dec. 23, 2002 sentenced Sam Bith to life in prison for masterminding the 1994 abduction and murder of three Western tourists. Sam Bith, who has appealed the verdict, was a former provincial chief for the Khmer Rouge, the genocidal communist regime that turned Cambodia into ``the killing fields'' during late 1970s.
"I wuz framed! Framed, I tell ya!"
"An' besides, all the witnesses are dead!"
He is one of the highest-ranking Khmer Rouge officials to be tried in court. However, no Khmer Rouge leader has been brought to justice over the 1970s genocide. The Cambodian government reached agreement with the United Nations last month to hold an internationally assisted genocide tribunal for surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.
So now they can start bumping off UN judges...
The motive for Sok Setha Mony's killing was not immediately known. Analysts said it was premature to draw a link between the killing and Khmer Rouge sympathizers, since Sok Setha Mony's work could have antagonized many others as well.
Honest judge in a corrupt land? Naaah, can't imagine who'd be upset!
Still, the killing sends a ``very serious negative message'' to the already weak judicial system in Cambodia, said Kek Galabru, the founder of a human rights group, Licadho. ``It reinforces the lack of respect for the judiciary. What happened (today) sends a message to other judges, and those other judges will be scared and afraid to do their work,'' she said.
To the contrary, it reinforces a profound respect for the judiciary — the people who did it are scared that a good judge can break them. So they acted first.
Sok Setha Mony's body was taken to a morgue where his colleagues from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court went to pay respects before holding a Buddhist ceremony at his work place. Sok Setha Mony, 42, became well known after presiding over the high-profile case of Sam Bith, whom he described in his verdict as the ``the real mastermind'' behind ``the vicious acts committed against innocent civilians.'' He had found Sam Bith guilty of conspiring to kill Australian David Wilson, Briton Mark Slater and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet in 1994, years after the Khmer Rouge lost power and operated as a guerrilla group.
Only 3 of how many thousands Bith killed himself?
Posted by:Steve White

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