The top surviving Khmer Rouge official, while on trial, defended the actions of the regime, saying it acted to benefit the populace.
Nuon Chea, the second-in-command under dictator Pol Pot’s communist regime, is accused of playing a major role in the deaths of at least 1.7 million people, or a quarter of the country’s population of 8 million, between 1975 and 1979.
Chea, who is on trial with two other former Khmer Rouge officials, told the court he acted to “serve the interests of the nation,” according to the BBC. Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, and Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister, are on trial alongside Chea.
While Pol Pot, the former supreme leader of the country, has been blamed for the majority of the killings and atrocities committed during that time, prosecutor Andrew Cayley says that some of the blame belongs to Chea, Sary, and Samphan.
“They cannot be blamed solely on Pol Pot as some of the accused may try,” he said, according to the broadcaster.
The trial, which opened on Monday, is the second one held by a United Nations-backed tribunal. There has only been one conviction, which took place last year, handed down by the court to former torture camp commandant, Kaing Guek “Duch” Eav.
