Khmer Rouge torture chief goes on trial

A notorious torture centre boss went before Cambodia’s genocide tribunal today for its first trial over the deaths of around 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 United Nations-assisted tribunal.