- Title: File of former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea ahead of his final statement in court
- Date: 20th June 2017
- Summary: BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF NUON CHEA AND KHIEU SAMPHAN WITH FORMER KHMER ROUGE CHIEF POL POT Nuon Chea's position in the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s meant he was in charge of Phnom Penh's notorious S-21 interrogation and torture centre set up at the capital's Tuol Sleng high school. After cutting a deal with the Cambodian government in December 1998, Nuon Chea lived in a small wooden house in Pailin in western Cambodia. His university connections and fluent Thai gave him ready access to medical treatment in Bangkok.
- Embargoed: 4th July 2017 08:58
- Keywords: Cambodia Pol Pot genocide court United Nations Khmer Rouge trial verdict Nuon Chea ECCC crimes against humanity
- Location: PAILIN AND PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA
- City: PAILIN AND PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA
- Country: Cambodia
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions
- Reuters ID: LVA0046M7ZUIT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: On Friday (June 23), Nuon Chea, Khmer Rouge Chief Pol Pot's right-hand man, often known as "Brother Number Two" is set to make his closing statement at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Cambodia in the second trial against him on charges of crimes against humanity, genocide, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
About 1.8 million people were killed during the 1975-1979 rule of Pol Pot's ultra-communist Khmer Rouge, from torture, execution, disease and starvation after harvests failed.
Most of the victims of the Khmer Rouge died of starvation, torture, exhaustion or disease in labour camps or were bludgeoned to death during mass executions. Pol Pot, "Brother Number One," died in 1998.
Nuon Chea, now 90, was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge's name for Cambodia, in 1960, a position that put him in charge of party and state security. He is believed to be the one most responsible for the deaths of the regime's victims.
In August, 2014, Nuon Chea and former President Khieu Samphan were sentenced to life in jail by the same tribunal in the first trial for crimes against humanity, murder, persecution on political grounds and other inhumane acts over the forced evacuation of the capital, Phnom Penh, after the fall of the city in 1975.
The appeals court upheld their sentences in November last year after the defendants appealed.
The second trial, which commenced on October 17, 2014, was held to hear additional charges including genocide against the Cham ethnic minority and the Vietnamese, forced marriages and rape, internal purges, among others.
The tribunal, which officially started in 2006 that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, has been plagued by infighting, political interference, resignations and funding shortages since it was set up. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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