Judges at Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal rejected the former Khmer Rouge head of state's appeal for release.
 

The 77-years old Khieu Samphan is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimesbefore Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal. He is one of five top cadres being held by the tribunal over atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge 1975-1979 rule.
 
The former leader appealed in April to be released but judges ruled his detention was necessary to protect his security and preserve public order.
 
"There continues to be well founded reasons to believe that the charged person may have committed the crimes with which he has been charged," the judges said.
 
"The charged person attended at least one meeting where the situation of  traitors and their potential execution was discussed," they added.
 
At least 1.7 million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the Khmer Rouge regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling the population to vast collective farms in its bid for a communist utopia.
 
The ongoing first Khmer Rouge trial began in February, when the regime's  notorious prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, went before the court in Phnom-Penh.
 
Khieu Samphan was arrested in 2007 but no date has been set for his trial, which is expected to start next year.