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Ieng Thirith appealed for her release before she is tried for crimes against humanity and genocide for her role in the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government. -- PHOTO: REUTERSAFP
PHNOM PENH - THE Khmer Rouge 'First Lady' has threatened her fellow former regime leaders and prison guards at least 70 times while detained at Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court, a prosecutor said on Monday.
The allegation was made as the former minister of social affairs, Ieng Thirith, 78, appealed for her release before she is tried for crimes against humanity and genocide for her role in the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government. She is one of five top regime figures detained at the court, which was set up to try leaders of the movement which killed up to two million people through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.
'She regularly and violently, on at least 70 occasions, threatened co-detainees at the detention facility and also threatened guards at the detention facility,' prosecutor Vincent de Wilde told judges. The prosecutor argued that if Ieng Thirith was released before her trial, expected to begin next year, she could 'instil fear in victims and potential witnesses'.
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