Former Khmer Rouge Leader Detained
Published: 9/19/07, 4:05 AM EDT
By SOPHENG CHEANG
PAILIN, Cambodia (AP) - Police arrested the top surviving Khmer Rouge leader Wednesday, taking Nuon Chea to appear before a U.N-backed genocide tribunal for his role in the 1970s Cambodian regime blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.
Police surrounded his home in Pailin in northwestern Cambodia near the Thai border and served him with an arrest warrant on charges of crimes against humanity, police Capt. Sem Sophal said.
Officers later took the 82-year-old Nuon Chea - who denies any wrongdoing - into custody and put him into a car and then a helicopter headed for the capital, Phnom Penh, as his son and dozens of onlookers gathered to watch in silence, witnesses said.
"My father is happy to shed light on the Khmer Rouge regime for the world and people to understand," Nuon Say said afterward.
In Phnom Penh, a convoy transported Nuon Chea from a military airport in the capital to the tribunal's offices. Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said the co-investigating judges were expected to question Nuon Chea later Wednesday.
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