The last remaining surviving Khmer Rouge leader has been transferred to a Cambodian state prison after losing his appeal against a genocide conviction and life sentence imposed on Khieu Samphan, the kingdom's UN-backed court said Wednesday.
The 91-year-old was head of state for the murderous communist regime that wiped out a quarter of the Cambodian population in less than four years in the 1970s.
The court in 2014 handed over life sentences for crimes against humanity to Khieu Samphan and Brother Number Two Nuon Chea.
In 2007, Khieu Samphan was arrested and was detained in a special facility at the court.
Khieu Samphan was transferred to Kandal Provincial Prison on January 30, 2023 to serve his two life sentences, prosecutors said Wednesday.
They added that judicial authorities have taken steps to make sure that Khieu Samphan's conditions of detention are appropriate for someone of his advanced age, limited mobility and state of health.
The prison is about a 20-minute drive from Phnom Penh.
When he appeared in court in September, Khieu Samphan looked frail and sat hunched in a wheelchair in the dock, listening intently to the lengthy ruling through headphones.
His genocide conviction relates to the persecution of ethnic-minority Vietnamese, seen by the Khmer Rouge as treacherous enemies within.
The hybrid court with Cambodian and international judges was set up to try the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which wiped out about two million people through starvation, torture, forced labour and mass executions during its 1975 -- 79 rule.
Brother Number One, known as Pol Pot, never faced justice, died in 1998 before the court was established.