PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A notorious torture center boss went before Cambodia’s genocide tribunal today for its first trial over the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime more than three decades ago.
Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch, who headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh — is charged with crimes against humanity, and is the first of five defendants scheduled for long-delayed trials by the U.N.-assisted tribunal.
The hearing today was for procedural matters and testimony was expected to begin only in late March.
Duch, 66, intently followed the proceedings in a courtroom packed with some 500 people after he was was driven there in a bulletproof car from a nearby detention center. He is accused of committing or abetting a range of crimes including murder, torture and rape at S-21 prison — formerly a school — where up to 16,000 men, women and children were held and tortured before being put to death.
He has made no formal confession. However, unlike the other four defendants, Duch “admitted or acknowledged” that many of the crimes occurred at his prison, according to the indictment from court judges. Duch, who converted to Christianity, has also asked for forgiveness from his victims.
