New Zealand trans-Atlantic rower Rob Hamill says his family could finally see justice for his long-dead brother as the trial of notorious Cambodian leader Kaing Guek Eav gets under way this week in Phnom Penh.
Kaing, known as "Duch", is accused of running a torture centre and prisonresponsible for the deaths of more than 12,000 Cambodians and a handful of Westerners - including Hamill's brother Kerry - during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Kerry Hamill was 28 when he was killed in 1978. He was sailing from Singapore to Bangkok with the yacht's Canadian co-owner Stuart Glass and the charterer, British man John Dewhirst, when it is believed they blew off course and were arrested.
Mr Glass was killed when the yacht was captured but Mr Hamill and Mr Dewhirst ended up at Tuol Sleng, a former primary school turned torture centre and prison.
Rob Hamill, who represented New Zealand at the Olympics in 1996 and rowed the Atlantic Ocean in record-setting style with Phil Stubbs, plans to go to Cambodia for the trial once it gets under way.
"We look forward to seeing some sort of justice as far as the family goes," Mr Hamill told the Dominion Post.
The Khmer Rouge regime ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when the Vietnamese gained control and forced them into hiding.
"Duch", now 66, is charged with overseeing the torture and extermination of thousands of men, women and children at Tuol Sleng. He was formerly a maths teacher.
New Zealand's Dame Silvia Cartwright is one of two international judges, sitting alongside three Cambodian judges, on the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal.
