Cambodian police have arrested former Khmer Rouge officials Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith and brought them before a U.N.-backed tribunal to face charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
A court spokesman said they were arrested for their part in the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule of Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of an estimated one-point-seven million people, most of whom died from overwork, starvation or murder.
Authorities blocked the road before entering their luxurious Phnom Penh villa. Ieng Sary is a former foreign minister and his wife, a former social affairs minister.
Two other former Khmer Rouge leaders have already been arrested on charges of war crimes.
The group's second in command, Noun Chea, was arrested in September. Earlier, in July, former Khmer Rouge prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, who is commonly known as "Duch," was also taken into custody.
The U.N.-backed tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, was created last year to prosecute former Khmer Rouge leaders.
The Khmer Rouge cleared Cambodians from the cities and forced them to work farmland to create a self-sufficient agrarian society devoid of social classes. Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
