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Top Khmer Rouge leader detained | Top Khmer Rouge leader detained |
(30 minutes later) | |
Police in Cambodia have arrested Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state, and taken him to a UN-backed genocide tribunal. | |
The elderly ex-leader was detained after he was released from hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh. | |
He is the fifth person to be targeted by the court, set up to bring surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge to the dock. | He is the fifth person to be targeted by the court, set up to bring surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge to the dock. |
More than one million people are thought to have died between 1975 and 1979 under the brutal Maoist regime. | More than one million people are thought to have died between 1975 and 1979 under the brutal Maoist regime. |
Confidant | |
Khieu Samphan's arrest had been widely expected. | |
A former guerrilla fighter, he became the president of Democratic Kampuchea after the Khmer Rouge came to power and was a close confidant of leader Pol Pot. | |
He has long claimed that his position was ceremonial and in a recently published book denied policies to starve people and orders to carry out mass killings. | |
Last week, amid reports that his arrest was imminent, he was flown to hospital in Phnom Penh after apparently suffering a fall. | |
Early on Monday, police entered the hospital and drove the former leader to the special courts to appear before a panel of investigating judges. | |
His arrest completes the initial round-up of suspects by the tribunal, which was established last year after decades of delay. | |
Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and wife Ieng Thirith, the social affairs minister, were arrested last week and charged with crimes against humanity. | |
Pol Pot's second-in command, Nuon Chea, and Kang Kek Ieu (Duch), the head of the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, are also facing similar charges. | |
Their trials are expected to begin next year. |