Nuon Chea

Nuon Chea (Khmer: នួន ជា; 7 July 1926 – 4 August 2019^[3]) was a Cambodian communist politician. He was also known as Long Bunruot (Khmer: ឡុង ប៊ុនរត្ន) and Brother Number Two. He was the second most powerful person in the Khmer Rouge, which committed the Cambodian genocide.

Nuon Chea
Nuon Chea on trial.
President of the Standing Committee of the Kampuchean People's Representative Assembly
In office 13 April 1976 – 7 January 1979
President	Khieu Samphan
Prime Minister	Pol Pot
Deputy	Chhit Choeun
Leader	Pol Pot (General Secretary)
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea
In office 27 September 1976 – 25 October 1976
President	Khieu Samphan
Leader	Pol Pot (General Secretary)
Preceded by	Pol Pot
Succeeded by	Pol Pot
Personal details
Born	Lau Kim Lorn (1926-07-07)7 July 1926 Voat Kor, Battambang, French Indochina (now Cambodia)
Died	August 4, 2019(2019-08-04) (aged 93) Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Political party	Communist Party
Spouse(s)	Ly Kimseng[1]
Children	Nuon Say,[2] 2 other children[1]
Alma mater	Thammasat University

Nuon Chea was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge regime.^[4] When he died in 2019, he was the highest-ranking member of the Khmer Rouge who was still alive.^[5]

Life

He was born in 1926 and was given the name Lao Kim Lorn.^[3] He studied law at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand.^[3] There, he became a member of the Thai Communist Party.^[3] Nuon Chea was the second most powerful person in the Khmer Rouge, after Pol Pot.^[5] For this reason, he was called Brother Number Two.

Conviction

Nuon Chea was arrested in 2007, along with other Khmer Rouge leaders.^[6] He was put on trial for crimes against humanity and genocide. He was tried with another important Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan.

In 2014, Nuon Chea was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes against humanity.^[7] Later, in November 2018, he was convicted of the crime of genocide.^[8] He appealed his prison sentences, but died before the appeals were completed. After he died, his lawyers tried to get his guilty convictions removed, but they did not succeed.

Death

Nuon Chea died on August 4, 2019 at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh, aged 93.^[9] Though he was still in prison, he had been hospitalized since July 2 because his body was not delivering blood properly to his toe. As a result, his toe got infected. The infection spread to his bloodstream, and he developed a septic shock. This killed him, probably by causing several of his organs to fail.^[10]

Cremation

His body was later brought to Sala Krau, Pailin, before cremation according to Buddhist tradition, a religion he persecuted.^[11][12]