Ieng Thirith was a sister-in-law of the movement’s late supreme leader, Pol Pot. “She remained under judicial supervision until her death”, the statement from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) added.
Advertisement
Ieng Thirith, who served as minister for social affairs in the Khmer Rouge regime during the 1970s, had been accused of crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, genocide, homicide, torture and religious persecution.
She was married to former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, who died in 2013 aged 87 before a verdict was delivered in his trial.
This year, she was warded in a Thai hospital with heart, bladder and lung problems.
A UN-backed tribunal court said Thirith passed away “at approximately 10.30 a.m. (0330 UTC) on August 22 in Pailin, Cambodia”.
The legal case against her was put on hold in 2012 after she was deemed unfit to stand trial because she had dementia.
Prosecutors had accused her of involvement in the “planning, direction, coordination and ordering of widespread purges”, and charged her with crimes against humanity, genocide, homicide, torture and religious persecution.
Her death at age 83 was announced in a news release by the ECCC.
The two – Nuon Chea, the regime’s chief ideologist and No. 2 leader, and Khieu Samphan, a former head of state – are now in a second trial also related to charges of genocide.
An estimated 1.7 million people died from overwork, starvation and murder between April 1975 and January 1979, when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia.
“She was an influential party member who wielded nationwide power as the regime’s minister of social affairs”.
Advertisement
“Ieng Thirith was personally and directly involved in denying Cambodians even the most basic of health care”, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which researched the atrocities. “Justice should not be buried with the death of criminals”.
