First Khmer Rouge Verdict Expected in Cambodia Genocide Trials

In the Khmer Rouge tragedy a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal is scheduled to deliver its first verdict against one of the killers.
First Khmer Rouge Verdict Expected in Cambodia Genocide Trials
By
7/26/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/103086788.jpg" alt="Local and international journalists look at a live video in a press room at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on July 26, showing former Khmer Rouge also known as Duch, during the reading of the verdict in his trial for all his crimes. (Tang Chin Sothy/Getty Images)" title="Local and international journalists look at a live video in a press room at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on July 26, showing former Khmer Rouge also known as Duch, during the reading of the verdict in his trial for all his crimes. (Tang Chin Sothy/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1817016"/></a>
Local and international journalists look at a live video in a press room at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on July 26, showing former Khmer Rouge also known as Duch, during the reading of the verdict in his trial for all his crimes. (Tang Chin Sothy/Getty Images)
More than three decades after the Khmer Rouge tragedy, a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal is scheduled to deliver its first verdict against one of the top killers of the communist regime on Monday, according to the Phenom Phenh Post.

Kaing Guek Eav, known as “Duch,” has been on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and torture. Duch was chief of the notorious S-21 prison in Phnom Phenh, where prisoners suffered beatings, electric shocks, and had plastic bags tied over their heads at Duch’s orders, according to a trial witness, cited by Cambodian news blog, KHMER NZ.

Duch was arrested in 1999 and has been in a military jail since then. Before the trial he asked for forgiveness from his victims. During closing arguments, Duch made a surprising appeal for an acquittal, which may aggravate his sentence, according to the Post.

Between 1975-1979, one-fifth of the Cambodian population died from starvation, torture, and overwork at the hands of the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot who died in 1998.