Release of Khmer Rouge Torturer 'would Threaten Public Order'

Releasing the former head of the Khmer Rouge's largest torture center poses a threat to public order in Cambodia, prosecutors at a UN-backed tribunal said today.

Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, should remain behind bars until his trial opens next year, said the prosecutor, Chea Leang. The long-delayed tribunal has not set a date for the start of the trial.

Duch, 66, a former schoolteacher, is the first senior Khmer Rouge official to stand before the court set up to prosecute "those most responsible" for the 1.7 million deaths during the 1975-79 genocide under Pol Pot.

He showed little reaction as prosecutors argued against his release in a nationally televised hearing.

"My only request is that the [court] release me on bail," Duch said, rising to his feet when asked if he had anything to say. He pressed his palms together in show of respect for the judges.

Judges adjourned the hearing without saying when they would decide a ruling.

Duch is charged with committing crimes against humanity as the commander of the regime's notorious Tuol Sleng prison in the capital Phnom Penh.

Under his watch at the prison, also known as S-21, as many as 16,000 men, women and children were tortured before being executed outside the capital at the site known as "the killing fields". Only 14 people are thought to have survived.

Prosecutors called Duch a "flight risk" and said he should remain in jail for his own safety and in the interest of public order.

If Duch were released he could be harmed by "accomplices wishing to silence him and by the relatives of victims seeking revenge", Robert Petit, a prosecutor from Canada, told the court.

Petit said "the entire public order [could] be jeopardized" if the Khmer Rouge official were freed.

His lawyers, Kar Savuth, and Francois Roux of France, said he should be released because his human rights had been violated during the eight years he had spent in a Cambodian military prison before being transferred to the tribunal's custody in July.

Duch's sister, Hong Kimhong, insisted he would be safe if allowed to return to his home in Samlaut, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in north-western Cambodia.

"Don't be concerned about his safety. I know all the people in the village, and he is well liked by them there," she told reporters outside the court.

"My brother was a gentle man," she said. "He worked under the Khmer Rouge regime. If he did not follow orders from above, he would have been killed."

Duch is one of five people held in connection with Pol Pot's reign of terror. The regime was overthrown by Vietnamese troops.

Former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 76, was arrested on Monday and charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Last week, authorities arrested Ieng Sary, the Khmer Rouge's former foreign minister, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, its social affairs minister. Both were charged with crimes against humanity; Ieng Sary was also charged with war crimes.

Former Khmer Rouge ideologist Nuon Chea was detained in September on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.