A former member of Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge regime became the first from the ultra-Maoist movement to stand trial before a U.N.-backed tribunal on Tuesday. Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, faces charges that include crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva conventions during the regime’s 1975-1979 rule. He is standing trial just outside the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which is made up of Cambodian and international judges.
