On Monday former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Khieu Thirith were arrested by Cambodia’s “Killing Fields” court, Reuters reports. Sary, the former deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge’s Democratic Kampuchea regime, is the third Pol Pot to be detained by the U.N.-backed court. He has been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

His wife, Thirith, also faces charges of crimes against humanity. Sary and Thirith were the founders of the movement.

The couple was taken by the police from their Phnom Penh villa to be questioned by investigators late Monday.

In 1996 Sary was absolved of genocide by former king Norodom Sihanouk in exchange to offer help to defeat the remaining rebel Khmer Rouge movement. Still he wasn’t absolved for war crimes. He became the international face of the ultra- Maoist revolution after its crush in 1979 when it faced a Vietnamese invasion.

Reach Sambath, media officer said: “They have been officially charged with these crimes. We will release more details to the media tomorrow.”

They were taken on Monday morning from their home and handed over to the U.N. and Cambodian authorities. Afterwards they were transported to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia to be investigated.

The two are in their 80s and are the third and fourth people respectively to be charged by U.N.-Cambodia genocide tribunal.

The first one is Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s former deputy, who was charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes and the second one is Kang Keng Iev, alias Duch, the former commandant of the S-21 torture centre, who will also face charges of crimes against the humanity.

Nuon Chea claimed to be innocent while Duch confessed to reporters his involvement in the mass killings.

The next to be charged is believed to be Khieu Samphan, regime’s former head of state.

It was estimated that up to 2 millions of Cambodians died of torture, disease or starvation under the 1975 to 1979 regime. It was a failed attempt by the ultra-Maoists to turn Cambodia into an agrarian utopia deprived of money, markets and social classes.