Cambodia: Cambodian Genocide Tribunal To Rule On Bail Hearing For Detained Khmer Rouge Suspect

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal prepared to rule Monday (3 Dec) on an appeal against the detention of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, who is facing charges of crimes against humanity.

Defense lawyers for Kaing Guek Eav, who headed the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison, demanded last month that he be released on the basis that his human rights had been violated by the more than eight years he has already been in jail without trial.

Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, was detained at a Cambodian military prison on war crimes charges after his arrest in 1999 before being transferred to the tribunal's custody in July.

Prosecutors said Duch was a "flight risk" and argued that he should remain behind bars for his own safety and in the interest of public order.

Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit told a Nov. 21 hearing that if Duch was released, he could be harmed by both "accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge."

Chea Leang, a Cambodian prosecutor, said Duch's trial may begin in mid-2008 but gave no specific date.

Duch, 65, oversaw the S-21 prison, which has since been converted into the popular Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

As many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured at S-21 before being transported out of Phnom Penh and executed at a site known as "the killing fields." Only 14 people are thought to have survived.

The Khmer Rouge has been blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people during their 1975-79 rule. Some observers fear that the group's surviving leaders might die before being brought to justice. The movement's notorious chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Duch is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders held in connection with the communist regime's brutal rule of Cambodia.

He became the first defendant to appear before the tribunal's judges. (AP)