Sole surviving Khmer Rouge leader denies role in genocide

Khieu Samphan, 90, one of the brutal regime’s few public faces, was sentenced in 2018 by a UN-backed court to life in prison for genocide.

The last surviving senior Khmer Rouge leader has denied responsibility for genocide committed more than 40 years ago in Cambodia during his closing remarks to an international tribunal. Under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime led by “Brother Number 1” Pol Pot, some two million Cambodians died from overwork, starvation and mass executions from 1975 to 1979. Khieu Samphan, 90, one of the secretive regime’s few public faces, was sentenced in 2018 by a United Nations-backed court to life in prison for genocide committed against ethnic-minority Vietnamese.