Following the nomination by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, and the approval by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni has appointed Ms. Brenda J. HOLLIS (USA) as the new International Co-Prosecutor in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) effective 1 September 2019.
Ms. Hollis replaces Mr. Nicholas Koumjian (USA) whose appointment ended in June this year.
Ms. Hollis was appointed as the Reserve International Co-Prosecutor in 2015. She served as the Prosecutor of both the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) from February 2010 through August 2019, where she earlier also served as the Principal Trial Attorney responsible for leading the prosecution of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Between 1994 to 2001, Ms. Hollis held various positions in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), including lead counsel in the preparation of the case against former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević and co-counsel in the Tadić case, the first litigated case in an international tribunal since the Nuremberg trials.
Ms. Hollis has trained judges, prosecutors and investigators in Cambodia, Indonesia and Iraq. She has also assisted victims of international crimes in Colombia and in the Democratic Republic of Congo to prepare submissions requesting investigations by the International Criminal Court.
Ms. Hollis is a former US Peace Corps volunteer and retired from the US Air Force with the rank of Colonel.