16 Years, 3 Convictions: The Khmer Rouge Trials Come to an End

The last surviving leader of the regime that killed 1.7 million Cambodians lost his appeal on Thursday. Some victims think the long, expensive tribunal was a hollow exercise.

For more than 15 years, a court in a military camp on the outskirts of Phnom Penh worked to bring some measure of justice for the horrors that killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population in the late 1970s. It spent over $330 million. In the end, it convicted just three people.

On Thursday, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia — a United Nations-backed tribunal charged with prosecuting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime — held its final hearing. It rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, 91, the fanatical communist movement’s last surviving leader, upholding his conviction and life sentence for genocide, as well as his convictions for other crimes.

As the ruling was read, Mr. Khieu Samphan, his face partially obscured by large black headphones and a white face mask, sank lower into his seat.

In full: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/world/asia/cambodia-khmer-rouge-tribunal.html

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