Khmer Rouge Interrogator Charged
The Khmer Rouge’s chief inquisitor was charged with crimes against humanity today by a Cambodian-United Nations tribunal.
The man widely known as Duch is the first official from the notorious Khmer Rouge regime to be charged, the Guardian reports. He appeared today before the tribunal located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The Guardian identifies Duch as Kaing Guek Eav, while Reuters uses the name Kang Kek Ieu.
Duch ran the Toul Sleng S-21 prison where 14,000 inmates died and only a few survived. He has confessed to atrocities at the prison, Reuters reports. He is expected to be a witness against other senior officials accused of atrocities during Pol Pot’s rule in the late 1970s.
The $56.3 million tribunal will try the cases under the Cambodian justice system. Judges and lawyers appointed by the UN will aid the court. It took a decade to establish the court’s ground rules, the Guardian reports.
