Cambodia war crimes court sentences top Khmer Rouge members to LIFE in prison for GENOCIDE

The UN-backed tribunal found Pol Pot’s deputy Nuon Chea, 92, and the Cambodian regime’s head of state Khieu Sampan, 87, guilty of trying to eradicate Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese, minorities in Cambodia. During the Khmer Rouge’s reign, nearly two million people are believed to have been killed between 1975 and 1979. The majority of the people who were killed, died from starvation, overwork or were deemed enemies of the state and were subsequently executed.

Chea and Sampen have been serving life sentences for crimes against humanity since 2014.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) made their verdict nearly four decades after the two men oversaw the “killing fields” in Cambodia.

Chea and Sampen are the first officials from the Khmer Rouge to be found guilty of genocide.

They were sentenced to life in prison as Cambodia outlawed capital punishment for all crimes in 1989.

 

Prior to the verdict, there was debate as to whether the actions of the Khmer Rouge amounted to genocide as the UN Convention on Genocide defines it as an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.

Prosecutors at the trial cited a speech by Pol Pot in 1978 where he said “not one seed” of Vietnamese existed in Cambodia.

According to historians, a Vietnamese community of a few hundred thousand was reduced to zero following mass deportations and killings.

Cham Muslims said not only were they targeted for execution, but they were also banned from practising their religion and were forced to eat pork.

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The Khmer Rouge were a group of radical Maoists led by Sloth Sar, also known as Pol Pot, who ruled Cambodia from 1975 until 1979.

During their rule, they killed anyone that they saw as a threat, including intellectuals, minorities and former government officials and their families.

In 1979, the regime was forced out of power after Vietnam invaded the country.

Pol Pot fled and was free until 1997.

He died while under house arrest a year later.