Sweden rejected a US plan to capture Pol Pot before the former Cambodian dictator's death and transfer him to the Scandinavian country to stand trial, Swedish Radio reported.

The report cited declassified Swedish diplomatic papers that revealed  American authorities had asked Sweden and a number of other unnamed countries to take Pol Pot into custody and put him on trial for genocide and murder.
 
But according to the documents dated 31 March 1998 -- two weeks before the Khmer Rouge leader's death -- the Swedish government declined Washington's  request.

Stockholm took the view that capturing Pot and bringing him for trial in this way would amount to unlawful detention and could tarnish the Scandinavian  country's human rights record.

"Sweden's jurisdiction could be called into question if Pol Pot was brought to Sweden in an unlawful manner," Swedish Radio quoted the documents as  saying.

"To 'dump' Pol Pot in Sweden would subject him to crimes against Swedish  law, something Sweden ought not be part of," the documents said according to  the radio report.

Pol Pot, who headed up Cambodia's communist regime from 1975 to 1979, died  on April 15, 1998 at the age of 69.

Historians say he was responsible for the death of nearly two million people during his brutal reign.