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Nuon Chea

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Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea on trial.
President of the Standing Committee of the Kampuchean People's Representative Assembly
In office
13 April 1976 – 7 January 1979
PresidentKhieu Samphan
Prime MinisterPol Pot
DeputyChhit Choeun
LeaderPol Pot (General Secretary)
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea
In office
27 September 1976 – 25 October 1976
PresidentKhieu Samphan
LeaderPol Pot (General Secretary)
Preceded byPol Pot
Succeeded byPol Pot
Personal details
Born
Lau Kim Lorn

(1926-07-07)7 July 1926
Voat Kor, Battambang, French Indochina (now Cambodia)
DiedAugust 4, 2019(2019-08-04) (aged 93)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Political partyCommunist Party
Spouse(s)Ly Kimseng[1]
ChildrenNuon Say,[2] 2 other children[1]
Alma materThammasat University

Nuon Chea (Khmer: នួន ជា; 7 July 1926 – 4 August 2019[3]) was a Cambodian communist politician. He was also known as Long Bunruot (Khmer: ឡុង ប៊ុនរត្ន) and Brother Number Two. He was the second most powerful person in the Khmer Rouge, which committed the Cambodian genocide.

Nuon Chea was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge regime.[4] When he died in 2019, he was the highest-ranking member of the Khmer Rouge who was still alive.[5]

He was born in 1926 and was given the name Lao Kim Lorn.[3] He studied law at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand.[3] There, he became a member of the Thai Communist Party.[3]

Nuon Chea was the second most powerful person in the Khmer Rouge, after Pol Pot.[5] For this reason, he was called Brother Number Two.

Criminal charges

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Nuon Chea was arrested in 2007, along with other Khmer Rouge leaders.[6] He was put on trial for crimes against humanity and genocide. He was tried with another important Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan.

In 2014 Nuon Chea was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes against humanity.[7] Later, in November 2018, he was convicted of the crime of genocide.[8]

He appealed his prison sentences, but died before the appeals were completed. After he died, his lawyers tried to get his guilty convictions removed, but they did not succeed.

Nuon Chea died on 4 August 2019 at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh, aged 93.[9] Though he was still in prison, he had been hospitalized since July 2 because his body was not delivering blood properly to his toe. As a result, his toe got infected. The infection spread to his bloodstream, and he developed septic shock. This killed him, probably by causing several of his organs to fail.[10]

His body was later brought to Sala Krau, Pailin, before cremation according to Buddhist tradition, a religion he persecuted.[11][12]

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Provisional Detention Order (Ordonnance de placement en détention provisoire), Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, retrieved 7 August 2009 Archived 15 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Top Khmer Rouge leader arrested in Cambodia". 19 September 2007. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "NUON Chea". Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  4. "Khmer Rouge". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "Nuon Chea, Khmer Rouge's Chief Ideologist, Dies at 93". The New York Times. 2019-08-04.
  6. Neuman, Scott (2019-08-05). "Nuon Chea, Top Khmer Rouge Leader, Dies At 93 While Serving Life Sentence". NPR.
  7. "Cambodia: UN-backed tribunal ends with conviction upheld for last living Khmer Rouge leader | UN News". The United Nations News. 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
  8. "Cambodian Genocide". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
  9. "Nuon Chea, ideologue of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, dies at 93". Bangkok Post. 4 August 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  10. Khuon, Narim; Khy, Sovuthy (5 August 2019). "Brother Number 2 Nuon Chea dies at 93". Khmer Times. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  11. Voun, Dara (6 August 2019). "Brother No 2 Nuon Chea's body taken to Pailin". The Phnom Penh Post. Archived from the original on 6 August 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  12. Top Khmer leader Nuon Chea dies Archived 2019-08-06 at the Wayback Machine Manila Times