Ex-Khmer Rouge official appeals genocide verdict in Cambodia

By SOPHENG CHEANG and DAVID RISING
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The last living leader from the inner circle of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime is in court seeking to overturn his conviction on genocide charges before a long-running international tribunal. Ninety-year-old Khieu Samphan was the former head of state for the Khmer Rouge radical communist regime that ruled Cambodia with an iron fist in the 1970s and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. His defense team says it is seeking to overturn the 2018 verdict finding him guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, questioning the evidence and arguing procedural failures.