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PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's UN-backed tribunal on Tuesday indicted a former Khmer Rouge prison chief for crimes against humanity and war crimes, ahead of the first trial of regime leaders expected later this year.
In a statement, the court said the investigating judges had forwarded the charges against Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Duch", to the main chamber.
On August 8, the judges delivered an order "indicting Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch and sending him forward for trial for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (on war crimes)," it said.
Duch has been in prison since 1999 for his role at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, a former high school that was converted into a torture centre.
The 65-year-old was transferred to the custody of the tribunal in July last year, becoming the first top Khmer Rouge cadre to be detained by the court since it was set up in July 2006.
At the time, he was charged with crimes against humanity. The war crimes charge has apparently been added after investigation of the case against him.
Duch allegedly oversaw the torture and extermination of 16,000 men, women and children at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh during the regime's 1975-1979 rule.
Established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between Cambodia and the UN, the long-stalled tribunal seeks to prosecute crimes committed 30 years ago by senior regime leaders.
In all, five top Khmer Rouge leaders are now facing charges at the tribunal for crimes committed by the regime. Duch's trial is expected to open in October at the latest, and could last up to four months.
Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist regime emptied Cambodia's cities, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia during its rule.
The Khmer Rouge also abolished money, religion and schools.
- AFP/so
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