Khmer Rouge's Top Woman Facing Trial

May 21, 2008 12:55 p.m. EST

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (AHN) - The former social welfare minister and the most powerful woman in the Khmer Rouge, Ieng Thirith, 76, on Wednesday appeared for the first time at a U.N.-backed genocide court in Cambodia.

Thirith is facing charges of crimes against humanity during Khmer Rouge's brutal four-year reign in Cambodia in the late1970s that has killed an estimated three million people from torture, starvation and forced labor.

She has filed for bail on the charges, but the court has yet to decide on her petition. Earlier, the genocide court denied the petition for bail of three of the five other former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Kheiu Samphan, 76 former Khmer Rouge head of state appeared before the tribunal in April. He was rushed to the hospital Wednesday morning after complaining of high blood pressure.

Reach Sambath, spokesman for the tribunal said Samphan's condition was not urgent "but necessitated attention."

Samphan was arrested in November on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. His defense has never denied the killings but argued that as head of state in the regime, Samphan was not directly involved.

Thirith was one of the founding members of the Khmer Rouge while her husband, Ieng Sary, was foreign minister. Her sister was married to Pol Pot, the regime's supreme leader.

Prosecutors argue that Thirith has direct knowledge that tens of thousands of Cambodians were dying of starvation and diseases during the brutal collective farming introduced by the regime. As social welfare secretary, prosecutors said Thirith did not do anything to stop the killing.