Historical figure

Nuon Chea

Deputy secretary of the Khmer Rouge party, known as Brother Number Two, convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide; died in 2019 during his appeal.

Nuon Chea (1926 to 2019), born Lao Kim Lorn, was the deputy secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the party of the Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម). Known as "Brother Number Two", he was second in command to Pol Pot.[1][2] The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia convicted him of crimes against humanity in 2014 and of genocide in 2018, with a life sentence each time. He died in 2019 while appealing the second judgment, so the 2018 convictions never became final.[1]

Early life

He was born in 1926 in Voat Kor village, Sangkae district, Battambang province (ខេត្តបាត់ដំបង).[1] He studied in Battambang and in Thailand, and later read law at Thammasat University in Bangkok.[1] In 1950 he joined the Communist Party of Thailand.[1][3] The same year he went back to Cambodia to join the Khmer Issarak, a movement fighting French colonial rule.[1]

From 1951 to 1954 he was in Vietnam for political training.[1] In 1954 and 1955 he met Saloth Sar, later known as Pol Pot, and worked as an assistant to Tou Samouth, the leader of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party.[1]

Party leadership

At the party's First Congress in September 1960 he was made its deputy secretary, and there he met Ieng Sary.[1] He also sat on the party's Standing Committee, and he kept both posts through the years that followed.[4][3] He was one of the founders of the Khmer Rouge movement.[2]

On March 30, 1976, he was appointed Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Representative Assembly of Democratic Kampuchea.[1] He served as acting Prime Minister from September 1976 to September 1977.[1] From late 1977 he was named in public as Deputy Secretary of the party's Central Committee.[1]

After 1979

In January 1979, as Vietnamese forces arrived, he fled to Pursat province with Pol Pot and Ieng Sary.[1] In December 1979 he was confirmed again, in exile, as Chairman of the People's Representative Assembly. In October 1981 he led a delegation to the Asian Parliamentarian Conference in Beijing.[1]

In December 1998 he surrendered to government forces together with Khieu Samphan.[1][2] Shortly afterwards he issued his first statement acknowledging the suffering of Cambodians under Khmer Rouge rule.[2] The filmmaker Thet Sambath interviewed him at length from the late 1990s and co-produced the 2009 documentary Enemies of the People.[5]

Trials

On September 19, 2007, he was arrested at his house near Pailin (ប៉ៃលិន), once a Khmer Rouge stronghold, and detained on the order of the court's Co-Investigating Judges.[1][2] The Co-Investigating Judges indicted him on September 15, 2010.[1] Testifying in 2011, he said: "I don't want the next generation to misunderstand history."[6]

Case 002/01

On August 7, 2014, the Trial Chamber found him guilty in Case 002/01 of three crimes against humanity: extermination (including murder), political persecution and other inhumane acts. It sentenced him to life imprisonment.[1] The judges found that, as the party's deputy secretary, he shared ultimate decision-making power with Pol Pot and was a key actor in shaping party policy.[1] They found that he planned the forced transfer of the people of Phnom Penh in 1975. He also ordered, planned and instigated the crimes at Toul Po Chrey, and aided and abetted them.[1]

He and Khieu Samphan appealed, saying the court had made many errors and its judges had not stayed impartial.[7] On November 23, 2016, the Supreme Court Chamber affirmed the life sentence. It upheld the bulk of the convictions but accepted that some legal errors had been made at trial.[7][1]

Case 002/02

On November 16, 2018, the Trial Chamber convicted him in Case 002/02 of genocide, of crimes against humanity and of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It gave him a second life sentence, merged with the first.[1][8] The genocide conviction was for killing members of the Vietnamese and Cham groups.[1] It was the first time a court ruled that the Khmer Rouge had committed genocide.[9]

The judges found that he was key in ordering purges across the country and executions at the S-21 security center, and that he intended the crimes against the Vietnamese and the Cham.[1] Judge Nil Nonn held him responsible for murder, torture and other crimes, calling him "Pol Pot's loyal right-hand man".[3] He admitted that he had been a Khmer Rouge leader but denied the charges, and he suggested that he was the target of political persecution.[9][8]

Death

On July 2, 2019, he was moved from the court's detention center to the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh for treatment.[3] He died there on the evening of August 4, 2019, aged 93, while appealing the 2018 judgment.[10][5] No cause of death was given. A co-prosecutor said he had suffered from many chronic illnesses.[10][3]

On August 13, 2019, the proceedings against him were terminated because of his death, so the 2018 convictions never became final.[11][1] He never admitted guilt in court. His lawyer Liv Sovanna said after his death that his client was innocent.[5]

References 11
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Nuon Chea (undated)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Al Jazeera, Key leaders of the Khmer Rouge (November 20, 2007)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 VOD, ‘Brother No 2’ Nuon Chea Dead at 93 (August 5, 2019)
  4. ↑ Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, Accused Persons (undated)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Voice of America, The Man Behind Cambodia's Khmer Rouge 'Died Easier Than the People He Killed' (August 6, 2019)
  6. ↑ VOD, Q&A: How Will Nuon Chea Be Remembered? (August 9, 2019)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Al Jazeera, Cambodian court upholds sentences of Khmer Rouge chiefs (November 23, 2016)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Voice of America, Last Khmer Rouge Leaders Found Guilty of Genocide (November 16, 2018)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 ABC News, Last surviving Khmer Rouge leaders found guilty of genocide in landmark ruling (November 16, 2018)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Al Jazeera, Cambodia: Senior Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea dies at 93 (August 4, 2019)
  11. ↑ Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Trial 002/02 (undated)


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This page was last edited on 14 November 2026, at 17:25.