Khmer Rouge prison chief sentenced to 35 years in prison

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), July 26 (ANI): Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, who participated in the torture and killing of Kiwi Rob Hamill's brother, has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention.

The convictions were handed down in Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh by a UN-backed war crimes tribunal this afternoon.

Eav also known as Duch was the first of five senior Cambodian Khmer Rouge leaders to stand trial for his part in the genocide committed in the 1970s, the New Zealand Herald reports.

More than 1.7 million people, a quarter of Cambodia's population, died by starvation, disease, torture and execution.

New Zealand rower Rob Hamill, who lost a brother during the Khmer Rouge regime, was in the Phnom Penh courthouse today to hear the historic verdict.

Kerry Hamill was one of three foreigners captured when their yacht was blown off course into Cambodian waters in 1978. All were tortured and killed. (ANI)