The only surviving Khmer Rouge leader on Thursday denied the charges against him in the U.N.-backed tribunal in Cambodia to appeal a 2018 lower court ruling that convicted him of genocide and gave him a life sentence.
Khieu Samphan, 90, was the former head of state of the radical communist Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 that was responsible for the deaths of nearly 2 million people as a result of mass killings, torture, starvation, unattended illnesses, overwork and harsh living conditions.
But at the final hearing of the four-day appeal trial that started Monday, Khieu Samphan said he has never wanted to commit any crime against his compatriots or anyone else.
"I declare that I cannot accept the accusation that I was involved in a plot to commit crimes against my compatriots including the Cham, or the Vietnamese," he said, as the 2018 conviction was largely connected to crimes against the Muslim minority and people of the country's neighbouring state, who were among thousands of civilians killed by the Khmer Rouge regime.
Khieu Samphan had pleaded his innocence in the lower court, claiming he did not know about the genocide.
In the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, four former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, including Khieu Samphan, had been tried but the other three leaders died before the judicial process in the ECCC could be completed.
The former head of state of the Khmer Rouge is serving a life sentence on a 2014 conviction on crimes against humanity, including that connected with forced transfers of people.
"No matter what you decide, I will die in prison," he said. "I will die always remembering the suffering of my Cambodian people."
The ruling of the appeal court is scheduled to be handed down next year.
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