PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's war crimes tribunal Sunday set free a former leader of the Khmer Rouge, upholding a decision that has outraged survivors seeking an explanation of the mass killings committed more than 30 years ago. Eighty-year-old Ieng Thirith, who has been declared mentally unfit for trial, was driven out of the UN-backed tribunal's compound by family members. She made no comment to reporters. The Sorbonne-educated Shakespeare scholar served as social affairs minister during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule, during which an estimated 1.7 million people died of execution, medical neglect, overwork and starvation. Ieng Thirith was the Khmer Rouge's highest-ranking woman and also a sister-in-law of its top leader, Pol Pot, who died in 1998. — AP
