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Ex-Khmer Rouge minister detained | Ex-Khmer Rouge minister detained |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Police and officials from Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal have taken former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary into custody. | Police and officials from Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal have taken former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary into custody. |
Ieng Sary and his wife, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, were driven to Phnom Penh's special courts. | |
They will appear before judges who will decide if they should face charges. | |
Ieng Sary was the brother-in-law of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Some one million people are thought to have died under the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule. | Ieng Sary was the brother-in-law of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. Some one million people are thought to have died under the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule. |
A special court was established last year to bring surviving leaders of the brutal regime to the dock. Trials are expected to start in 2008. | |
Two senior Khmer Rouge officials have already been charged by the court. | |
Pol Pot's second-in command, Nuon Chea, and the head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison Kang Kek Ieu - also known as Duch - both face charges of crimes against humanity or war crimes. | |
Purge of intellectuals | |
Police surrounded the Phnom Penh house of Ieng Sary and his wife early in the morning. | |
WHO WERE THE KHMER ROUGE? Maoist regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979Founded and led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998 Abolished religion, schools and currency in a bid to create agrarian utopiaBrutal regime that did not tolerate dissentMore than a million people thought to have died from starvation, overwork or execution Brutal Khmer Rouge regime | |
They searched the house for around three hours and then drove the couple away in a convoy of vehicles. | |
They will face a short hearing at the courts and will likely be charged later in the day, says the BBC's Guy Delauney in Phnom Penh. | |
The couple, who have been living freely in the Cambodian capital for more than 10 years, were at the heart of the Khmer Rouge leadership. | |
Ieng Thirith's sister was married to Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge founder who died in 1998. | |
Ieng Sary, meanwhile, was responsible for convincing many educated Cambodians who had fled the Khmer Rouge to return to help rebuild the country. | |
Many were then tortured and executed as part of the purge of intellectuals, some of them diplomats from his own office. | |
Prosecutors for the tribunal have said there is evidence of Ieng Sary's participation in crimes, including planning, directing and coordinating forced labour and unlawful killings. | |
Ieng Sary has repeatedly denied any crime. In 1996 he became the first senior Khmer Rouge leader to defect - and as a result was granted a royal pardon. | |
But, says our correspondent, the validity of that agreement looks set to be tested with his arrest by the court. |