Phnom Penh (FN), Aug. 4 – Former leader of Khmer Rouge, Brother Number Two, died Sunday, 4 August 2019, at the age of 93 at Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, Neth Pheaktra, spokesperson for Khmer Rouge Tribunal Court told Fresh News earlier today.

“We can confirm that defendant Nuon Chea, 93, passed away this evening on 4 August 2019 at Khmer Soviet Friendship hospital. He had been transferred from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia’s detention center to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship hospital for medical treatment since 2 July 2019,” Neth Pheaktra stated.

“Nuon Chea’s family has been informed,” he added.

Nuon Chea, born on 7 July 1926, was Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, a member of the Standing Committee and Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, and Chairman of the Democratic Kampuchea People’s Assembly throughout the period of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979, a regime blamed and condemned for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people.

“Nuon Chea was arrested on 19 September 2007 and was on trials before the ECCC on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions,” according to Pheaktra.

“He was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment in Case 002/01 on 7 August 2014. On 23 November 2016, the Supreme Court Chamber quashed part of the convictions but affirmed the life imprisonment imposed by the Trial Chamber,” he continued.

“On 16 November 2018, Nuon Chea was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 in Case 002/02 alongside Khieu Samphan. The Trial Chamber merged the life sentences imposed in Case 002/01 and Case 002/02 to form a single life sentence against Nuon Chea.”
=FRESH NEWS