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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.

Up to a quarter of Cambodia’s population died in
the four years of Khmer Rouge rule [Reuters]

A meeting of Cambodian and international judges has approved rules for the prosecution of former Khmer Rouge leaders, clearing the way for the long-delayed trials to begin almost 30 years after the group’s brutal rule came to an end.

The decision ends months of infighting and clears the last major roadblock to beginning court proceedings.

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"These rules will ensure us … fair and transparent trials," co-prosecutor Robert Petit told reporters, adding they had been adopted unanimously.

"Now that the rules are adopted, we can move forward."

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He said that Cambodian and foreign prosecutors who have been building cases against former Khmer Rouge leaders would probably send those files on to investigating judges within weeks. The rules announced on Wednesday in Phnom Penh will govern every aspect of the United Nations-backed tribunal’s operations.

The tribunal was set up last year, but agreements over the court process had been held up because of wrangling over legal fees and procedures.

The delays mean that the trials proper are unlikely to start before early 2008, officials say.
(Go to the end of this page to see how the trials will work.)

‘Counter-revolutionaries’

Cambodia: After the killing fields

The Leqacy of Yaer Zero

Long wait for Jusfice

Key Khmer Rouge fiqures

Surviving the Khmer Rouge

Up to two million Cambodians died from hunger, disease, overwork or execution during the Khmer Rouge rule over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

The radical communist group had sought to transform Cambodia into their version of an agrarian utopia, clearing the cities, abolishing money, closing schools and wiping out anyone - such as intellectuals and professionals - who they saw as counter-revolutionaries.
The repeated delays in starting up the trial process has raised concerns that the ageing Khmer Rouge leaders would die before being brought to court.
Among the judges’ first tasks will be to identify candidates for prosecution.
Pol Pot, the so-called "Brother Number One" of the Khmer Rouge, died in a jungle hideout close to the Thai border in 1998. Ta Mok, the group’s military commander, who earned the nickname "The Butcher", died in prison last July. Among those surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, the likely first defendants to appear before the tribunal include:
Nuon Chea, the former Brother Number Two, second in command to Pol Pot.

Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister.

Khieu Samphan, the former president of the Khmer Rouge government.

And Duch, head of the infamous S-21 interrogation and torture centre in Phnom Penh.

How the trials will work

The trials will be held in a
specially-constructed court

After preliminary investigations, judicial prosecutors will take the strongest cases to the trial chamber. The trial will be heard before five judges: three Cambodian and two international with equal status.
A unanimous decision is not necessary, but a supermajority is, meaning at least four of the five must agree on the verdict.
If no super majority can be reached the defendant will be released.
Anyone convicted can appeal to the supreme court where five of seven judges will constitute a super majority.