Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch found guilty

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal. Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

He had admitted overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness, according to BBC News.

This is the tribunal's first verdict. Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40-year prison sentence.

However Duch will not serve the full 35 allotted years - judges reduced the sentence by five years because he had been held illegally, and reduced it by a further 11 years for time already served behind bars.

Wearing a blue shirt, the former Khmer Rouge jailer looked pensive and slumped in his chair as proceedings were held behind a huge bullet-proof screen.

Reading out the sentence, the president of the five-judge panel said it reflected the "shocking and heinous" nature of the offences.

Crowds of Cambodians attended the specially built court on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, to hear the verdict, which was also broadcast live across the country.

Some said they wanted a tougher sentence. "I can't accept this," Saodi Ouch, 46, told the Associated Press news agency. "My family died... my older sister, my older brother. I'm the only one left."

Up to two million people died because of the policies of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979. They included the evacuation of cities, forced labour in the rice fields and the summary execution of those considered enemies of the revolution.

The group's top leader, "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, died in 1998.