Khmer Rouge tribunal judges have made public more than 1,700 documents collected during the investigation into the landmark first case against Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the former chairman of the detention centre S-21.

The Supreme Court Chamber ruled that 1,749 previously “confidential” and “strictly confidential” documents would be declassified, the public affairs section announced yesterday.

The figure constitutes only a portion of the 12,000 that were under consideration by judges.

According to a statement released by the court, the now-public documents include the confessions of victims, witness statements and cadre biographies.

The remaining part of the trove are going into the case files of cases 002, 003 and 004, and will be reviewed at “the end of the proceedings to which they concurrently pertain”.

Tribunal spokeswoman Yuko Maeda said that an archival unit will go through each of the declassified documents to prep them for posting online, after which members of the public will have access through the website.

That process should take two to three weeks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joseph Freeman at [email protected]