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Prosecutors Send Cambodian Genocide Case to Judges


Prosecutors have given judges a list of top Khmer Rouge leaders accused of crimes committed when they were in power in Cambodia nearly 30 years ago.

A joint Cambodian-international team of prosecutors Wednesday provided an international tribunal with evidence against five former leaders it accuses of violations of international and Cambodian laws.

Judges will now review the evidence, including thousands of pages of documents and the locations of more than 40 mass graves, in order to decide if it is sufficient to bring the defendants to trial.

Last month's resolution of a dispute between the tribunal's Cambodian and international judges over procedural rules has allowed the trials to move forward after nearly a year of delays.

Up to two million Cambodians died in the mid-to-late 1970s before Vietnam's invasion in 1979 toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.

The top Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998. But he is survived by other senior leaders who live freely in Cambodia.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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