Khmer Rouge accused Khieu Samphan denies key role

A senior Khmer Rouge leader has accused a war crimes tribunal of wanting his “head on the block”, and insisted he had no real authority during the regime’s brutal rule of Cambodia in the 1970s.

Khieu Samphan, the former head of state, said he was a figurehead leader who never joined key policy meetings in the radical communist government, which is accused of orchestrating the country’s “killing fields” and causing the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians.