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First Khmer Rouge trial date set

Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Comrade Duch - will be the first in the dock, facing charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

He ran Tuol Sleng prison, where detainees were tortured and executed.

As many as two million people are thought to have died during the Khmer Rouge government in the late 1970s.

The process of bringing the regime's leaders to court has suffered years of procedural delays, and no major figures have yet stood trial.

Duch was in charge of the notorious facility known as S-21 or Tuol Sleng, where about 15,000 prisoners were systematically tortured.

Those who survived the ordeal were sent for execution in the so-called "killing fields".

Officials have indicated that Duch has been co-operating with the investigating judges and is willing to testify in court.

The BBC's correspondent in Cambodia, Guy DeLauney, says Duch is expected to reveal important information about the decisions made by the organisation's leadership.

Justice for the survivors of the Khmer Rouge era now seems tantalisingly close, our correspondent says.

Read entire article at BBC