The Cambodian government Friday approved a draft law that aims to punish those who ignore, minimize or deny the crimes committed by the communist regime between 1975 and 1979. Under the revised law, the civil penalty for genocide denial will now be increased to one to five years imprisonment and 10 million to 50 million riels (USD $2480 to $12,400).

The draft law is an amendment to the original 2013 anti-genocide denial law. The original law enforced a punishment of six months to two years imprisonment and a fine of 1 million to 4 million riels (USD$248 to $992).

The announcement of the draft law comes 50 years after the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975. “Khmer Rouge” refers to both the regime of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) between 1975 and 1979, as well to the members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

After seizing power in 1975, the Khmer Rouge attempted a nationwide socialist revolution that involved forced migration of civilians into rural areas in a “great leap forward,” aiming to transform the country into a homogeneous agrarian worker-peasant society.

During their five-year reign, the Khmer Rouge perpetrated widespread systematic enslavement, enforced population transfer, extermination, and attacks against human dignity on millions of civilians in Cambodia. The attacks were perpetrated on political, national, ethnic, racial and religious grounds.

Following the regime’s collapse in 1979, the Royal Government of Cambodia in conjunction with the UN established the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in 1997 to investigate and prosecute the most responsible leaders and individuals of the regime.

The ECCC prosecuted four cases against senior leaders of the regime, convicting one surviving senior leader guilty of the crime of genocide. Other senior leaders had died or were unfit to stand trial.