The last surviving leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, Khieu Samphan has had an appeal against his conviction for genocide rejected at a war crimes tribunal.
The ruling last week in the appeal of Khieu Samphan 91, the former head of state of the 1975-1979 - "Democratic Kampuchea" government, marks the final decision by the court and ends 16 years of work by the UN-backed war crimes tribunal.
The rejection of the appeal sought to clear Khieu Samphan of the genocide of minority Cham Muslims and ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. Of the two million victims of the Khmer Rouge, 100,000 to 500,000 were Cham Muslims, and an estimated 20,000 were ethnic Vietnamese.
Last week's ruling is expected to be the last by the tribunal, which brought to justice just five senior Khmer Rouge leaders – including one who died during proceedings and another who was ruled unfit to stand trial – at a cost of more than $330 million.
Though Khieu Samphan and his legal team were unable to convince the judges that he was innocent of genocide, he appeared to have convinced himself — despite being found guilty of crimes against humanity in a separate case before the tribunal in 2014.
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