Nuon Chea

Cambodian politician and convicted war criminal (1926-2019)

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Lived 1926–2019, aged 93

Wikipedia
35 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1926–2019
Aged 93
Known for
Enemies of the People
2009

Summary

Updated 2026-06-12

Second-in-command to Pol Pot, he was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge and architect of policies that fed the Cambodian genocide. Known as "Brother Number Two," he received a life sentence for crimes against humanity and genocide in 2014 and 2018, dying in prison the following year.

Biography

About

Born Lao Kim Lorn on 7 July 1926, he became a Cambodian revolutionary and the principal ideological force behind the Khmer Rouge. He served briefly as acting Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea while functioning as Pol Pot's second-in-command during the 1975–1979 genocide. Decades later, in 2014, he was convicted of crimes against humanity alongside Khieu Samphan, another senior leader. A second trial in 2018 added genocide convictions; the Trial Chamber merged these into a single life sentence on 16 November 2018. He died in custody on 4 August 2019, never having left prison.

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