THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The head of the main Khmer Rouge torture center will be taken from a detention cell to the former regime's "killing fields" next week to stage a re-enactment of his alleged crimes before officials of Cambodia's genocide tribunal, a judge said Friday.
Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, has been charged with crimes against humanity for his role as commandant of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison and torture center in the capital, Phnom Penh.
The site is now a genocide museum.
The judge did not say how Duch will re-enact his crimes, citing the case's confidentiality. He said it was part of "a normal investigative action" in the case against Duch.
The Khmer Rouge have been blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
Duch, 65, is one of five former high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials being held for trial.
When he was in charge of Tuol Sleng prison in the late 1970s as many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being taken for execution in some fields just outside the capital.
Only 14 prisoners are thought to have survived S-21.
Duch will revisit the two sites Tuesday and Wednesday, Cambodia's UN-assisted tribunal said in a statement.
"For the re-enactment, Duch will be assisted by his lawyers. The co-prosecutors and a number of witnesses will participate," Marcel Lemonde, a co-investigating judge of the tribunal, told The Associated Press separately by e-mail.
The prison and killing fields will be closed to the public during the re-enactment and "strict security measures will be in place," the tribunal said in a statement.
Long-delayed genocide trials were scheduled to start later this year. Many fear the group's surviving leaders could die before being brought to justice. The movement's chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Duch's Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, declined to comment on his client's pending visit to the sites.
Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, has been charged with crimes against humanity for his role as commandant of the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison and torture center in the capital, Phnom Penh.
The site is now a genocide museum.
The judge did not say how Duch will re-enact his crimes, citing the case's confidentiality. He said it was part of "a normal investigative action" in the case against Duch.
The Khmer Rouge have been blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.
Duch, 65, is one of five former high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials being held for trial.
When he was in charge of Tuol Sleng prison in the late 1970s as many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being taken for execution in some fields just outside the capital.
Only 14 prisoners are thought to have survived S-21.
Duch will revisit the two sites Tuesday and Wednesday, Cambodia's UN-assisted tribunal said in a statement.
"For the re-enactment, Duch will be assisted by his lawyers. The co-prosecutors and a number of witnesses will participate," Marcel Lemonde, a co-investigating judge of the tribunal, told The Associated Press separately by e-mail.
The prison and killing fields will be closed to the public during the re-enactment and "strict security measures will be in place," the tribunal said in a statement.
Long-delayed genocide trials were scheduled to start later this year. Many fear the group's surviving leaders could die before being brought to justice. The movement's chief, Pol Pot, died in 1998.
Duch's Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, declined to comment on his client's pending visit to the sites.
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