PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Rifle-toting Cambodian police arrested ex-Khmer Rouge President Khieu Samphan on Monday, the fifth member of Pol Pot's inner circle to be detained by the U.N.-backed "Killing Fields" tribunal.
The French-educated guerrilla leader was taken from a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh where he was treated after suffering a fall last week at his home in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin on the Thai border.
"Khieu Samphan is being transferred to the tribunal," a police official said.
A close confidante of Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan has denied any knowledge of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during its four-year reign of terror from 1975-79.
An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of torture, disease or starvation under the ultra-Maoist revolution.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; writing by Darren Schuettler; editing by Rosalind Russell)
The French-educated guerrilla leader was taken from a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh where he was treated after suffering a fall last week at his home in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin on the Thai border.
"Khieu Samphan is being transferred to the tribunal," a police official said.
A close confidante of Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan has denied any knowledge of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge during its four-year reign of terror from 1975-79.
An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of torture, disease or starvation under the ultra-Maoist revolution.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; writing by Darren Schuettler; editing by Rosalind Russell)
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