Ieng Sary, former Foreign Minister and Deputy-Prime Minister of the Khmer Rouge, and his wife, former Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, were arrested Monday by Cambodian police on charges of crimes against humanity. Sary was also charged with war crimes.Sary is alleged to have promoted policies of forcible transfer, forced labor, and unlawful killings while a member of the Khmer Rouge’s ruling inner circle. Ieng Thirith, Pol Pot’s sister-in-law, is accused of planning, directing, coordinating, and ordering widespread purges and of unlawfully killing members of the ministry that she once ran.
An estimated 1.7 million people died as a result of the regime’s 1975-1978 reign.
The pair will be tried by a special war crimes tribunal convened by the Cambodian government and the United Nations. The panel will consists of five judges, two foreign and three Cambodian.
The Tribunal’s press release can be found here.
The full story can be found here