robert petit is a canadian lawyer who during 2006 and 2009 was the international coprosecutor for the extraordinary chambers in the courts of cambodia which is aiming to try khmer rouge leaders for violations of international criminal law in cambodia between 1975 and 1979 he led the investigation and prosecution of five senior most leaders of the khmer rouge namely nuon chea ieng sary ieng thirith khieu samphan and kang kek iew the last was recently convicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity petit also initiated the prosecution of five other khmer rouge leaders whose cases are still under investigation by the united nationsbacked tribunal petit was a crown prosecutor in montreal for eight years from 1996 to 1999 he was a legal officer in the office of the prosecutor of the international criminal tribunal for rwanda between 1999 and 2004 he was a regional legal advisor for the united nations interim administration mission in kosovo a prosecutor for the serious crimes unit of the united nations mission of support to east timor and a senior trial attorney for the special court for sierra leone at the rwanda tribunal petit drafted indictments in the government butare hategekimana and nizeyimana cases at the special court for sierra leone he led the task force that prosecuted six indictees in two separate cases for crimes against humanity including terrorism and war crimes in unmik petit provided legal advice to the international administrator of one of five regions of kosovo on various issues including the implementation of an international judiciary and issues arising out of the deployment of international police and armed forces in unmit he exercised criminal investigative functions and led the prosecutions of persons suspected of mass crimes committed during a period of national political transition in east timorcurrently petit serves as a counsel in the crimes against humanity and the war crimes section of justice canada he is responsible for investigating mass atrocity cases in canadian courts with special focus on africa and latin americapetit was called to the quebec bar in 1987 and has spoken and written extensively on international humanitarian and human rights laws in 2009 he received the frederick k cox international humanitarian award for global reform at the case western school of law cleveland he speaks fluent english and french petit was selected in 2011 as one of the four final candidates to succeed luis morenoocampo as the prosecutor of the international criminal court in the hague