Khmer Rouge: Cambodia court to rule on genocide appeal of last surviving leader

Judges poised to hand down verdict on appeal by former head of state Khieu Samphan, 91, in UN-backed tribunal’s final case.

Cambodia’s UN-backed tribunal for the Khmer Rouge will issue its final verdict on Thursday, when it rules on an appeal by the regime’s last surviving leader, more than 40 years since Pol Pot’s brutal communist regime fell.

The tribunal, known as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), will issue its verdict on an appeal by Khieu Samphan, 91, on Thursday morning. Khieu Samphan, who was a former head of state, was found guilty of genocide of Vietnamese in 2018.

An estimated 1.7 million people were killed under the Khmer Rouge through a combination of mass executions, starvation and labour camps, in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. By the time the regime was ousted in 1979, about 25% of Cambodia’s population had died.

In full: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/khmer-rouge-tribunal-cambodia-court-rule-genocide-appeal-last-surviving-leader-khieu-samphan

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