Khmer Rouge Leader Khieu Samphan Sent to Prison to Serve Life Sentence

The last living leader of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan, has been sent to a state prison in Cambodia to serve a life sentence for genocide, prosecutors announced on Wednesday. On January 30, 2023, the 91-year-old was transferred to the Kandal Provincial Prison after losing his appeal.

In December 2020, the United Nations-backed court upheld his 2018 conviction for crimes against humanity and genocide.

Khieu Samphan had been in the special court premises since his arrest in 2007 and was seen has frail and hunched in a wheelchair since his final appearance in court. The court found him guilty for persecuting the Vietnamese minority, which the Khmer Rouge had labelled as an enemy menace.

The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, was responsible for the death of a quarter of the Cambodian population in the 1970s. However, Pot died in 1998 without facing trial. Khieu Samphan is now the sole and last leader in court-related proceedings associated with the persecution of Cambodians during this period.

Prosecutors said that the Kandal prison has taken necessary steps to ensure Khieu Samphan’s conditions of detention are appropriate to his advanced age, limited mobility, and his state of health.