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On Friday, two senior Cambodian Khmer Rouge regime officials will rule on their guilt for genocide. According to one expert, the courts will put an end to their efforts to get justice done by the court, supported by the UN.
Former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, 87, and "Brother Number 2", Nuon Chea, 92, are the two oldest members of the ultra-Maoist group that took control of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.
The reign of terror led by "number 1 brother" Pol Pot left about two million Cambodians dead from burnout, famine and mass executions.
The two defendants were previously sentenced to life in 2014 for violently evacuating Phnom Penh in April 1975.
But the ruling by the extraordinary chambers of the Cambodian courts (CETC) on Friday will decide whether the two men are guilty of overseeing the genocide against the Vietnamese ethnic group and the Cham-Muslim minority, as well as many other crimes.
David Scheffer, who was special expert of the UN Secretary-General on the Khmer Rouge trials of 2012 last month, said: "The verdict is essentially the Nuremberg judgment of the ECCC and weighs a lot for Cambodia, international criminal justice the annals of history. "
The revolutionaries who tried to recreate Buddhist-dominated Cambodia in accordance with their vision of an agrarian society have attempted to forcibly abolish distinctions of class and religion.
Forced marriages, rapes, treatment of Buddhists and atrocities committed in prisons and workplaces across the country are among the additional charges against the two men.
Youk Chhang, head of the Cambodia Documentation Center, a research organization that has provided evidence to the court, said he hoped the verdict would "reaffirm the collective humanity of the victims and recognize the horrific suffering ".
It could also "give the impression of closing a horrible chapter in the history of Cambodia".
About 800 people, including 200 Cham-Muslims, are expected to attend the hearing on Friday, said ECCC spokeswoman Neth Pheaktra.
The Hybrid Court, which uses a mixture of Cambodian and international law, was created with UN support in 2006 to try the leading Khmer Rouge leaders. The court sentenced only three people, costing more than $ 300 million.
Former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife died without facing justice, while "Brother Number 1" Pol Pot died in 1998.
The number of allegations against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan was so vast that the court divided the trials into a series of smaller hearings in 2011.
Many believe that this decision will be the last for the court, which has been tainted with allegations of political interference.
Prime Minister Hun Sen – himself a former Khmer Rouge leader – has repeatedly warned that he would not let further investigations continue, citing vague threats to stability.
The court opened investigations into four other Khmer Rouge personalities, but one of them was removed from office in February 2017, highlighting the difficulties in bringing to justice the junior members of the brutal regime.
Mr Scheffer said that "the problems of efficiency, funding and access to evidence" were recalcitrant problems for all the international criminal courts, but that the successes of the Cambodian court should not be reduced.
