Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) –The first session of the Special Tribunal to judge the former Khmer Rouge leaders still living held its first session today in Phnom Penh. Appearing before the Crown Court, under the patronage of the United Nations, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, the man in charge of the interrogation centre S-21, in which he admits that at least 15 thousand men, women and children “of spies” were killed.
Today’s sitting is a forerunner to the official trial due to open next year and is in answer to the release plea put forward by Duch’s lawyers. According to the attorneys, the former Khmer Rouge ring leaders has already spent enough time in prison without having been officially charged and that as a result he should be freed pending trial.
Duch, who is now 65 appeared before the court wearing a white shirt and seemed to be in good health. He is the first of the five arrested leaders of the regime that caused the death of between 1.5 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979, to appear before a court.