This is the stunning secret hideaway is planning to buy – to expand the jungle paradise she bought from a Khmer Rouge commander accused of mass murder.

Pictured for the first time, Ms Jolie’s remote idyll in northeast Cambodia features tranquil jungle oases and beautiful plant species but its beauty hides a dark past.

The 7.5 hectare tract of land, which doubles as a compound for her charity MJP Foundation, was bought in 2002 from Ta Tith, an ex regime official formally charged in 2015 with committing genocide during the ‘Killing Fields’ reign of terror.

MailOnline can reveal that the 41-year-old took time out from promoting her new film about Cambodia’s horrific genocide forty years ago to ask representatives to offer £32,000 for the land next door, which is owned by a former Khmer Rouge soldier.

Rieng Cheat, who served under Ta Tith and called him ‘a good man’, gave a tour of the property and said: ‘I am happy we are selling to this famous lady. We see Angelina whenever she visits and she is always very friendly.’

Paradise: Superstar humanitarian Angelina Jolie is secretly buying an idyllic stretch of jungle in Cambodia from a former Khmer Rouge soldier while she promotes her new film about the horrors of the regime’s Killing Fields. Pictured: Gazebo overlooking the river where Jolie and her children swim while on holiday at the jungle hideaway

Wild swimming: This stunning lagoon and waterfall deep in the Cambodian jungle form a unique swimming spot for Angelina Jolie and her six children when she stays at her private hideaway bought from a Khmer Rouge commander. Now she is buying the land which gurantees access to the pool from the former Khmer Rouge soldier who owns it for £32,000

Natural beauty: The actress-director flew by helicopter to the remote plot pictured above in northwest Cambodia one day after a screening of her movie First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap. Her charity’s representatives made a £32,000 offer for the land

Dark past: Angelina Jolie bought an 7.5 hectare tract of land in Cambodia for a private hideaway in 2002, pictured above for the first time, from a Khmer Rouge commander charged in 2015 with genocide. Ta Tith is said to be responsible for the deaths of 600,000 people but reportedly received $25,000 from the star to vacate the huge patch of land where Jolie and her children now spend holidays and which doubles as a compound for her charity MJP Foundation

Battle-scarred: Former Khmer Rouge soldier Rieng Cheat, 52, who says he is selling Angelina Jolie a 2.5 hectare tract of land for US$40,000, shows off a scar from a Vietnamese bullet. He served under legendary Khmer Rouge commander Ta Tith who sold Jolie the adjacent tract of land for a private holiday home and charity compound

Retreat: The 2.5 hectare of riverside land Ms Jolie is buying lie directly next to a heavily-guarded 7.5 hectare jungle hideaway she controversially bought 15 years ago from a Khmer Rouge commander accused in 2015 of being responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths during their reign of terror 40 years ago

The humanitarian icon flew to a remote part of northwest Cambodia after a screening of the movie she directed First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap and later made a £32,000 offer through her charity for a stunning 2.5 hectare plot of riverside land.

The land is directly next to a heavily-guarded jungle hideaway that Jolie, a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, bought in 2002 from a notorious commander accused of genocide and crimes against humanity during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror 40 years ago. He was accused of the mass murders in 2015.

Confirming the sale for the first time, reclusive Yim Tith – charged with genocide by UN prosecutors after 600,000 people died in the region under his control – told an undercover Mail Online reporter he was told his land would be confiscated if he did not sell to Jolie.

Jolie has since built a holiday home on the plot along with a forestry base for the charity she runs with her adopted Cambodian son Maddox, 15, the Maddox Jolie Pitt (MJP) Foundation. Villagers say she is planning an eco-resort on the once heavily land-mined site.

Jolie’s new land deal – negotiated as she was in Cambodia for Netflix-funded screenings of her Cambodian genocide drama – is with a former Khmer Rouge soldier Rieng Cheat who served under Yim Tith and still refers to the accused mass murderer as ‘boss’.

Yim Tith – known as Ta Tith (Grandfather Tith) in revolutionary times – was commander for northwest Cambodia during Maoist dictator Pol Pot’s Year Zero regime from 1975 to 1979 when more than two million people died through mass executions, relocation and starvation.

Business deal: While Ms Jolie was promoting the film First They Killed My Father her representatives were arranging for the purchase of a tract of land next to her Cambodian jungle hideaway. The stunning stretch, pictured above, is being sold by a former Khmer Rouge soldier for US$40,000

Eco-resort? Since buying the huge tract of land in Cambodia from a Khmer Rouge commander, pictured above, Jolie has built a holiday home on the plot along with a base for the charity she runs with her adopted Cambodian son Maddox, 15. She is now said to be planning an eco-resort on the site which was once a heavily land-mined Khmer Rouge stronghold.

Tranquil: The beautiful waters around Jolie’s Cambodian hideaway mask a dark past. Former owner Ta Tith was a Khmer Rouge commander during Maoist dictator Pol Pot’s Year Zero regime from 1975 to 1979 when more than two million people died through mass executions, torture, forced relocation to the countryside and starvation

Serene: The beautiful rock pool and waterfall at rear of Angelina Jolie’s jungle hideaway in Cambodia where the star goes swimming with her children, and previously with Brad Pitt before the marriage broke up. The woman selling Ms Jolie the property told MailOnline: ‘Angelina goes down to the river wearing just her pajamas and a swimming suit. Angelina is a friendly lady and always nice to us. She is very pretty in the films but when we see her in real life she is not so glamorous’

Relaxing retreat: The family selling Angelina Jolie their land said they go swimming every day when they are at the retreat, adding: ‘We see her whenever she visits and she is always very friendly. She is very thin and she has tattoos but she is pretty’

Jolie’s Cambodian-language movie, to be released later this year, is based on Loung Ung’s harrowing account of how as a young girl she escaped from the Khmer Rouge regime that killed her parents and siblings.

Now in his 80s, Yim Tith was charged with genocide in December 2015 but remains free and since selling his jungle home to Jolie in 2002 he has lived quietly with his wife in a comfortable single-storey rural home 20 miles away where he tends an orchard of dragon fruit trees.

Speaking by phone, Yim Tith confirmed to a Phnom Penh-based journalist working for Mail Online that he reluctantly sold his land to Jolie after being pressured by government officials who warned him the land would be requisitioned for a wildlife reserve if he did not.

‘I didn’t want to sell, but the government told me they would take control of the land if I did not,’ he said, confirming the deal for the first time. ‘We decided to accept the offer for little money and leave rather than be forced to leave with no money at all.’

Yim Tith claimed he received ‘around US$7,000 to US$8,000’ for selling the land in Samlot village near Battambang to Jolie although earlier reports based on documents from the deal suggest he may have been paid at least US$25,000.

The land was bought along with surrounding plots also owned by former Khmer Rouge fighters through the Maddox Jolie Pitt (MJP) Foundation set up by Jolie in her adopted son’s name to develop forestry sites and promote peace in the heavily-mined former war zone.

Jolie took Cambodian citizenship in 2005 and has a close relationship with the country’s rulers, meeting both Prime Minister Hun Sen – himself a former senior Khmer Rouge officer – and the King of Cambodia on her recent visits.

Rieng Cheat, 52, said he agreed to sell his land to Jolie for US$40,000 after she flew with colleagues in two helicopters from Siem Reap last Monday for a seven-hour visit during which her charity’s representative offered US$30,000 for his land.

The representative returned on Sunday and increased the offer to US$40,000 on Sunday when Cheat told him other buyers were interested in the plot. A preliminary agreement has now been signed and thumb-printed, he said.

Cheat, a Khmer Rouge soldier from 1981 until the early 1990s, said he and his family were preparing to give up the tin-roofed shacks and smallholding with pigs and ducks which has been their home for 20 years once the deal was completed.

‘We have lived here for many years and they have asked us about selling to Angelina before, but we said we weren’t interested,’ he said. ‘This time, however, we decided it was a good offer and we should accept and move to another property in a nearby village.

‘I am happy we are selling to this famous lady. We see Angelina whenever she visits and she is always very friendly. She is very thin and she has lots of tattoos, but she is pretty.’

Charity work: The headquarters of Angelina Jolie’s charity in Battambang, Cambodia, where she runs a multi-million dollar foundation for environmental conservation, health, education and infrastructure in the remote and impoverished northwest

No justice: Ms Jolie’s land deal may serve as another example of the impunity enjoyed by the Khmer Rouge, which left as many as 2.2 million people dead in under four years of power and are only now facing the possibility of criminal prosecution 30 years after the fall of their regime. Pictured: Jungle stream and river at the new land she has offered to buy

Mass murder accused: Ta Tith – who was charged with genocide in 2015 after an estimated 600,000 people perished in the area under his control – confirmed to an undercover Mail Online reporter that he sold his land to the UNHCR goodwill ambassador Ms Jolie in 2002. Tith said: ‘I didn’t want to sell but the government told me they would take control of the land if I did not. We decided to accept the offer for little money and leave rather than be forced to leave with no money at all.’

Cheat’s wife mother-of-five Chum Ny, 48, said Jolie would walk past the hut where they live on her way to swim in the river or on her way to a rock pool at the rear entrance of Jolie’s property.

‘She goes swimming in the morning and the evening when she is here – sometime alone and sometimes with her husband and colleagues and her children,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen her husband here too. He is a little bit fat and pale skinned but he seems very nice too.

‘Angelina goes down to the river wearing just her pyjamas and a swimming suit. She is very pretty in the films but when we see her in real life she is not so glamorous.’

Jolie flew in with her staff last Monday, staying from 8 am until 3 pm, Chum said. The director of her charity spoke to Chum and her husband offering to buy the land.

‘They said they wanted to extend Angelina’s property and let the trees grow back on the hillside leading to the river,’ she said.

Chum said she had been inside the heavily guarded complex owned by Jolie. ‘They have three houses hidden away inside the complex. They are very beautiful homes and Angelina usually stays here for a few days whenever she comes to Cambodia,’ she said.

Cheat – now an officer in the Cambodian army with responsibility for border control – proudly showed off a bullet wound to his stomach and mine blast injuries to his arms and face sustained in the long guerrilla war the Khmer Rouge waged against the Vietnamese.

‘I served under Ta Tith – he is my boss,’ he said. ‘The commander is a good man and a man who loves his army.’

Eco idyll: Mother of five Chum Ny, 49, and children on the land they are selling to Angelina Jolie for US$40,000. Chum told MailOnline: ‘They said they wanted to extend Angelina’s property and let the trees grow back on the hillside leading to the river’

Cheat said he had to clear 50 to 60 landmines from the riverside area when he first moved to the plot. The surrounding hillsides are still heavily mined and Cheat said: ‘When there are hill fires on the other side of the river, you will sometimes see the mines explode.’

Yim Tith faces a litany of charges from UN prosecutors including genocide and crimes against humanity including murder, enslavement, deportation, unlawful deportation of civilians and forced marriage.

Between 71,000 and 83,000 people alone are believed to have died in the prisons and execution sites Yim Tith operated. Hundreds of thousands more died from starvation and forced relocation.

With UN prosecutors facing resistance to their trials, however, his case may never come to court, leaving him free to tend his dragon trees in a lawless and isolated part of Cambodia where loyalties to the former Khmer Rouge leaders accused of atrocities remain strong.

Jolie’s charity the MJP Foundation says it is committed to ‘creating peace and stability in all communities by planning and implementing interventions that prevent negative environmental changes’.

Its website says: ‘Working with impoverished rural villagers and local governments to alleviate food insecurity and increase access to basic primary healthcare and education, the Foundation works to implement projects that build healthy and vibrant communities.’

Representatives for Angelina Jolie did not return requests for comment.

TWO MILLION WERE SLAUGHTERED UNDER POL POT

Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge presided over one of the bloodiest chapters in 20th century history, killing more than two million people through execution, torture and forced relocation to the countryside in an attempt to create a Communist utopia.

Seizing power in 1975 after a civil war, they carried out mass executions of teachers and intellectuals and attempted to turn Cambodia into a classless society by forcing the entire population to become farmers in labour camps.

Money was abolished, books burned and the intellectual elite tortured and executed or worked to death in the countryside in an exercise in mass social engineering led by ‘Brother Number One’ Pol Pot hauntingly captured in the movie The Killing Fields.

The Khmer Rouge were forced from power by a Vietnamese invasion in 1979 and became a powerful guerrilla force with strongholds in the border areas of northwest Thailand where Jolie bought her jungle plot from former northwest commander Yim Tith.

They eventually laid down their arms in 1993 when Cambodia’s monarchy was restored and former fighters like Rieng Cheat – who has agreed to sell his land to Jolie’s charity – were eventually given new positions in the regular Cambodian army as part of the reconciliation process.

Admired by many Cambodians for their resistance to the Vietnamese occupation despite their horrific crimes, former Khmer Rouge leaders involved in the genocide of the Pol Pot era have been able to live openly in society.

Pol Pot died in April 1998 and the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders apologised for the 1970s genocide eight months later.

A body called the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) was set up in 2007 with international backing to bring to justice senior leaders behind the worst crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime.

It has handled or started four cases in hearings that have so far involved more than 50,000 people. Earlier this month the case against Im Chaem, a 74-year-old woman accused of overseeing the killing tens of thousands of people, was thrown out