Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal resumes genocide trial

A group of students from Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S., wait in front of an entrance to a court room at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge tribunal has restarted genocide hearings against the former regime’s most senior surviving leaders.

Proceedings had been postponed since November after defense lawyers threatened a boycott because they were still working to appeal an earlier verdict.

Khieu Samphan, the 1970s regime’s head of state, and Nuon Chea, a right-hand man to communist group’s late leader, Pol Pot, both appeared in the Phnom Penh court on Thursday.

The trial ended at midday because Khieu Samphan was dizzy and suffering from high blood pressure.

The two ailing octogenarians were sentenced to life in prison in August after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.

Some 1.7 million people are estimated to have died from starvation, disease and execution due to the group’s extremist policies.

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