Last living Khmer Rouge leader denies backing genocide during appeal hearing in Cambodia
- Khieu Samphan, 90, was the former head of state for the Khmer Rouge regime
- The Communist Party of Kampuchea ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people
The last living member of former Cambodian leader Pol Pot’s inner circle denied complicity in the genocide committed under the brutal Khmer Rouge government, telling an international tribunal hearing his appeal on Thursday that he was being judged as a proxy for the entire radical communist regime.
Speaking slowly and deliberately, Khieu Samphan, 90, told the tribunal of Cambodian and international judges in a final statement to end his appeal of a 2018 verdict that he “categorically denied” participation in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“The trial chamber has demonstrated its inability to adjudicate me impartially,” he said as he read his statement. “It is clear that through me, the chamber was, rather, targeting the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK).”
Khieu Samphan was the former head of state for the Khmer Rouge, the name popularly used by the CPK, which ruled Cambodia with an iron fist from 1975 to 1979 and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
During the four day hearing in Cambodia’s capital, his defence team argued that the 2018 verdict should be overturned, alleging procedural failures during the original trial before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and questioning the evidence against their client.