By Press Association Reporter Last updated at 8:28 AM on 22nd November 2011 Three top Khmer Rouge leaders accused of orchestrating Cambodia's ‘killing fields’ went on trial today before a U.N. backed tribunal more than three decades after some of the 20th century's worst atrocities. Judge Nil Nonn declared the trial open and read the names of the three senior Khmer Rouge leaders who are defendants in the tribunal in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The defendants, who sat side by side with their lawyers, are 85-year-old Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologist and the No. 2 leader behind the late Pol Pot; 80-year-old Khieu Samphan, an ex-head of state; and 86-year-old Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister.
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Charges against the defendants include crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture
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The defendants are: Nuon Chea, 85, Khieu Samphan, 80 and Ieng Sary, 86
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A fourth defendant, Ieng Thirith, 79, was ruled unfit for trial because she has Alzheimer's disease
On trial: Defendants from left to right - Former Khmer Rouge second-in-command Nuon Chea, former President Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary are on trial in Cambodia for crimes connected to the @placeholder