Nuon Chea. (Mark Peters/ECCC via Getty Images)

Nuon Chea, the former second in command under Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, defended the actions of the communist Khmer Rouge regime, which killed at least 1.7 million people in four years. Chea said Vietnam, which ousted the regime, and bandits were responsible for the killings.

During the trial on his alleged participation in the genocide, Chea, who was known as “Brother Number Two,” said high-ranking officials in the Khmer Rouge were not “bad people.”

“Nothing is true about that,” he said, according to the BBC.

“It was Vietnam who killed Cambodians,” he said, in reference to Vietnam’s military intervention in 1979 to oust Pol Pot and his regime. He also claimed that rouge bandits were responsible for some of the killings.

However, survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s rule said Chea’s claims are false.

“We are not happy when he says Khmer Rouge were not bad,” Chum Mey, 80, a survivor of a Khmer Rouge torture camp told AFP. “A crocodile must cry when it is tied up. He is only speaking to get his punishment reduced.”