On Friday, Cambodia’s government announced that its Cabinet had approved a draft bill that will toughen penalties for anyone denying atrocities carried out by the communist Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.

The bill stipulates “the prosecution of any individual” who denies or condones the atrocities committed by Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge regime referred to itself, according to a government statement quoted by the AFP news agency. The bill’s definition of atrocities includes genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, for which a U.N.-backed court prosecuted five top Khmer Rouge leaders between 2006 and 2022, eventually convicting three of them.

Led by “Brother Number One” Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from April 1975 until their overthrow by a Vietnamese invasion in January 1979, during which time they attempted a radical reengineering of Cambodian society along agrarian lines. The attempt cost the lives of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, illness, overwork, and outright execution.

Under the seven-article draft bill announced on Friday, people who “deny the truth of the bitter past” will be jailed for between one and five years and could face fines of between $2,500 and $125,000.

The draft bill will be sent to the National Assembly soon for approval, which it is almost certain to gain, given that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) holds 120 of the 125 seats in the assembly.

Once passed, the law will replace a similar bill passed in 2013 on then-Prime Minister Hun Sen’s request, after opposition politician Kem Sokha suggested that some of the evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities was fabricated by the Vietnamese government. This law prescribed terms of imprisonment of six months to two years and fines of between $250 and $1,000.

The announcement of this more punitive draft law comes three months ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge takeover on April 17,........

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