In the dock for mass murder

Best known by his Khmer Rouge title of Comrade Duch,Kaing Guek Eav,the 67-year-old former math teacher is the first cadre in Pol Pots regime to stand for a genocide trial. He is accused of torturing over 12,000 people to death at Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Though Duch participated and aided the proceedings of the Court for the longer part of the trial,on the last day,he did a volte-face and claimed that he was neither the most senior officer nor amongst those most responsible for the deaths at Tuol Sleng. Having already been imprisoned for 10 years,he asked judges to set him free. Prosecutors have asked for a 40-year prison sentence.

Court/Charges: In 2006,the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia tribunal was set up after the UN decided to help Cambodia set up and run courts to prosecute those responsible for the Khmer Rouge crimes.

Spotlight: Tuol Sleng,a former school in Phnom Penh,was turned into a prison in 1977 for Enemies of the Party. It was the centre of Khmer Rouge excesses as thousands were tortured,electrocuted,water-boarded and later executed at the Orchard Gardens Killing Fields. Of the estimated 13,000 people who entered the prison,only 15 have survived.

RADOVAN KARADZIC

Karadzic,the former Bosnian-Serb president,is a qualified psychiatristhe is also a businessman and a poet. He is accused of bearing direct responsibility for the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war during 1992-1995.

Court/Charges: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is the UNs first special tribunal and is based in The Hague. Karadzic faces 11 counts of genocide,war crimes and crimes against humanity. Among other crimes,he is accountable for his role in the Siege of Sarajevo,a 44-month attack on the city in which around 12,000 civilians were killed. He is also accused of masterminding the massacres of 7,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.

Spotlight: Karadzic goes into hiding: Indicted in 1995,Karadzic was found living under a false name in Belgrade in July 2008. Earlier,there were rumours that he lived the life of a guerilla in the mountains or was hiding in South America. During this period,Karadzic changed personalitieshe is believed to have taken on the identity of Dragan Dabic,a peasant,natural healer,businessman and columnist.

KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED

Captured in Pakistan in March 2003,Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM),who was being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for his alleged ties to 9/11,will now be transferred to New York. It is believed that he was born in 1964 in Kuwait but is of Pakistani descent. His confession on December 8,2008,that he organised the September 11 attacks may be questioned in the light of the Obama administrations inquiry into torture at Guantanamo. KSM was,reportedly,waterboarded 183 times in March 2003.

Court/Charges: US Federal Court in New York KSM will stand trial at the District Court in Manhattan soon. Since 9/11,593 individuals prosecuted on terrorism-related charges have been convicted in similar courts in the US.

Spotlight: Guantanamo Bay Shutting down the Guantanamo Detention Centre was one of Barack Obamas election pledges. However,closing down the facility is more complicated than it appears. Theres the question of where to send the prisoners and which countries are willing to absorb so-called enemy combatants.

GERMAIN KATANGA and MATHIEU NGUDJOLO CHUI

The trials of Germain Katanga (left) and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui are based on ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both have led militias in the Ituri region in a conflict between the Hema and Lendu tribes. Both are charged with an attack on a village,Bogoro,where on February 24,2003,a thousand fighters from both groups killed without distinction. Estimates are that 200 people died on that single day alone. The aim was to thwart rival Thomas Lubangas campaign to take a key city along the way. Lubanga will face his own war crimes tribunal in January 2010.

Court/Charges: The trial of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui is the first trial undertaken by the International Criminal Court. Katanga faces six charges of recruiting hundreds of children under the age of 15 to fight in the five-year-conflict. Other charges include attacks on civilians,sexual slavery and rape.

Spotlight: The clash drove the country towards the brink of anarchy. When the Rwandan genocide of Hutus and Tutsis intensified,an estimated two million Hutus crossed over into Congo.