The top surviving leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge expressed a "moral responsibility" today to victims of the regime, but urged a UN-backed court to acquit him of crimes against humanity.
Prosecutors are demanding the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, 87, and ex-head of state Khieu Samphan, 82, for their roles in a regime that left up to two million people dead in the late 1970s.
Nuon Chea told the country's UN-backed tribunal in his final statement before a verdict that he had carried out his "duty to serve my country and my beloved people".
"Through this trial it has been shown clearly that I was not engaged in any commission of the crimes as alleged by the co-prosecutors. In short, I am innocent in relation to those allegations," he said.
He blamed everything on "treacherous" subordinates.
Ngor An, 69, who lost more than 10 relatives including three children under the Khmer Rouge, described Nuon Chea as a "coward" for not admitting his guilt.
"I am angry with what he said. He must be jailed for life," he said after watching the court proceedings.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the communist Khmer Rouge regime wiped out up to a quarter of the population through executions, starvation and overwork.
The two defendants both insist they were unaware of the atrocities committed by the regime.
"I would like to express my deepest remorse and moral responsibility to victims and the Cambodian people who suffered during the Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) regime," Nuon Chea said.
But he added that based on the evidence presented to the court, "I respectfully submit to your honours to acquit me from all the charges and accordingly release me."
The complex case of the regime's two most senior surviving leaders has been split into a series of smaller trials, initially focusing on the forced evacuation of people into rural labour camps and related charges of crimes against humanity.
More than two million people were expelled from Phnom Penh in April 1975 at gunpoint and marched to rural labour camps in one of the largest forced migrations in modern history.
The defendants deny charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, to the dismay of survivors and relatives of victims.
"We cannot accept his apology. He lied to us. He wanted to be acquitted. He did not care about others," said Bin Sivla, 55, who lost 11 relatives under the regime.
