Khmer Rouge jailer charged with atrocities

A former schoolteacher accused of presiding over a torture center was charged with crimes against humanity, becoming the first top figure of Cambodia’s notorious Khmer Rouge to be indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal in connection with atrocities that led to an estimated 1.7 million deaths.

Kang Kek Ieu, 62, also known as Duch, headed the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh, where as many as 16,000 suspected enemies of the regime were tortured before being taken out to what later became known as “killing fields” near the city.