Khmer Rouge official dies in Cambodia - CNN International

(CNN) -- It was one of the worst genocides since the Nazi era. The brutal Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975 and terrorized the population for four years, killing more than one million people, according to Georgetown University.

One of its infamous leaders died Thursday, escaping judgment for war crimes at the hands of a tribunal.

Ieng Sary passed away at a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh at age 87, a United Nations-backed court for Cambodia said. He was the foreign minister under Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot, otherwise known as "Brother number 1."

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia -- the U.N.-backed court -- will establish the cause of death before releasing his body to his family.

This leaves just two defendants facing charges in the Cambodia Khmer Rouge tribunal. Ieng Thirith, Ieng Sary's wife, was excluded from the case as unfit to stand trial in September 2012.

Charges of torture and murder will continue against the remaining defendants -- former nominal head of state Khieu Samphan and former prime minister Nuon Chea, known during Khmer Rouge rule as "Brother number 2."

Pol Pot came to power as a communist revolutionary after toppling the U.S. backed government in Phnom Penh, when American troops left the region in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam war.

The dictator died in 1998 before the tribunal's existence and never faced trial.

The defendants are over age 77, and there has been criticism that the proceedings have moved too slowly, with the judges making many concessions to those charged. More could die before facing judgment.

The defense for Ieng Sary once argued that the case against him should be dismissed on grounds of double jeopardy -- a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crime.

The court considered the motion.

When the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1979 and drove out the Khmer Rouge, they quickly put Ieng on trial and convicted him in absentia in 1979. When he defected from what remained of the broken Khmer Rouge regime in 1996, the Cambodian king pardoned him.'

Some have accused the court of not going far enough in its investigations into other potential cases. The International prosecutor wants to try several more defendants, but the government of Cambodia wants his case to be the end of the Khmer Rouge trials.

Cambodians have taken a high interest in the trial, packing the courtroom at hearings open to the public.

CNN's Sara Sidner contributed to this report