Khmer Rouge Leader in Court
Nuon Chea, one of the Khmer Rouge’s top surviving leaders, made a surprise appearance in a Cambodian court today in support of a former colleague accused of murdering three Western backpackers.
Sam Bith, 70, an ex-general with the Khmer Rouge, the Marxist rebels responsible for the genocide of the killing fields, is charged with the 1994 kidnapping and execution of three backpackers from Australia, Britain and France. Sam Bith is the most senior of three commanders charged in the case.
Few expected that the ailing Nuon Chea -- sporting a pair of natty 1960s-style sunglasses -- would turn up from the old Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, about 180 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, the capital, to protest Sam Bith’s innocence.
Appearing as a witness, however, the 77-year-old’s only words were to confirm his name and age. Soon after his taking the stand, the hearing was adjourned until Friday because of the ill health of the defendant, the judge said.
After Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot’s death in 1998, Nuon Chea became a prime target for those pressing for an international tribunal for Cambodia’s 1975-79 genocide, in which more than a million people died.
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