Kaing Guek Eav: Khmer Rouge Prison Chief Known as Comrade Duch Dies at 7

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, was a Cambodian Khmer Rouge official who ran the Tuol Sleng prison, also called S-21, where thousands of people were tortured and killed. Born on November 17, 1942, in Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia, he was a mathematics teacher before joining the Khmer Rouge.

Duch chaired S-21 and headed the Khmer Rouge security service during the regime of Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. He was convicted of responsibility for at least 12,272 deaths, though the actual toll at the prison may have been as high as 14,000. He was the first Khmer Rouge leader tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and his trial began in February 2009.

In July 2010 he was convicted of crimes against humanity, torture and murder, and was sentenced to 35 years. On appeal in February 2012 his sentence was increased to life imprisonment. He died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a hospital in Phnom Penh on September 2, 2020, at age 77. His trial gave survivors a measure of the accountability they had sought for decades.

Achievements: Chairman of Tuol Sleng prison S-21, first Khmer Rouge leader tried by the Cambodian tribunal (2009), convicted of crimes against humanity (2010), sentenced to life imprisonment on appeal (2012).

Birth: November 17, 1942 - Choyaot village, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

Profession: Khmer Rouge official and former teacher.

Interesting Facts: He expressed remorse at his trial and later converted to Christianity. S-21 is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.