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PHNOM PENH: Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea, who was arrested earlier this week, has disputed charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity filed against him, court documents filed on Friday revealed.
"Nuon Chea disputed the crimes with which he is charged, indicating that he would be ashamed to have committed such crimes," said a detention order from the UN-backed genocide tribunal, which is holding the most senior surviving regime leader.
Nuon Chea has also said he was never in a position to order any of the deaths that occurred under the Khmer Rouge, and has chosen a Cambodian lawyer to defend him, despite saying earlier that he would defend himself.
The 82-year-old, who emerged as the regime's chief ideologue and is accused of orchestrating its sweeping execution policies, was charged on Wednesday with war crimes and crimes again humanity after authorities seized him from his home in northwest Cambodia.
Up to two million people died during the communist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, and Nuon Chea claimed to have lost 40 family members during that period.
Nuon Chea, who faces life in prison if convicted, told court judges shortly after his arrest: "We did not have any direct contact with the bases and we were not aware of what was happening there," according to the documents.
He said "all real power was in the hands of the Military Committee, of which he was not a member", adding that "he was a member of the legislative power and that he never adopted any law allowing citizens to be killed".
Nuon Chea also argued that he should not be detained, saying he had lived within metres of the Thai border since his surrender to the government in 1998 and that "he does not intend to tarnish the honour of his country by fleeing".
But co-investigating judges Marcel Lemonde and You Bunleng, who are responsible for determining which suspects will be held by the court, said Nuon Chea must be jailed to ensure public order, as well as his own safety.
"In light of the many documents and witness statements implicating Nuon Chea, there are well-founded reasons to believe that he committed the crimes with which he is charged," the judges said.
"These crimes are of a gravity such that, 30 years after their commission, they still profoundly disrupt public order," they said.
"It is not excessive to conclude that the release of the charged person risks provoking, in the fragile context of today's Cambodian society, protests of indignation which could lead to violence."
The Khmer Rouge regime abolished religion, schools and currency, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to create an agrarian utopia. Most of its victims died of starvation, disease, overwork or execution.
A tribunal to try the regime's top leaders got underway last year. Five suspects, including Nuon Chea and former regime prison chief Duch, are under investigation, with public trials expected in 2008.
- AFP/so
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