14 Facts About Mam Nai

Mam Nai or Mam Nay, nom de guerre Comrade Chan, is a Cambodian war criminal and former lieutenant of Santebal, the internal security branch of the Khmer Rouge communist movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979.

Mam Nai was the leader of the interrogation unit at Tuol Sleng, assisting Kang Kek Iew, the head of the camp where thousands were held for interrogation, torture and subsequent killing.

Mam Nai gave testimony at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia on 14 July 2009.

Mam Nai denied being a leader of the interrogation and torture system of the Khmer Rouge.

Tall, pock-marked and having a pink complexion, Mam Nai impressed both Nate Thayer and Francois Bizot as the most frightening Khmer Rouge individual they ever beheld.

Mam Nai met him twice at the French Embassy compound in Phnom Penh, the second time during the arrest of Sirik Matak who had been hiding seeking political asylum.

Mam Nai was born in Kampong Thom Province in 1934, while Cambodia was under French domination.

Mam Nai was taught by Son Sen at the Institut de Pedagogie in Phnom Penh, becoming a natural sciences teacher in 1956, and Kompong Thom's Balaign College principal in 1958.

Together with Tang Sin Hean Mam Nai helped Duch to perfect his interrogation techniques in order to purge perceived "enemies of the revolution" from the Khmer Rouge ranks.

Mam Nai was fluent in the Vietnamese language, uncommon among Cambodians, and took part in the interrogation and torture of Vietnamese-background prisoners, contributing to the extermination of the Vietnamese Cambodian minority.

Mam Nai's signature is on scores of documents detailing the torture of DK's political opponents.

Mam Nai saw to the execution of surviving prisoners with his boss Duch before abandoning Tuol Sleng prison; both men were among the last Khmer Rouge cadres to flee Phnom Penh when it fell to the People's Army of Vietnam on 7 January 1979.

Mam Nai left the Khmer Rouge shortly before Pol Pot ordered Son Sen's assassination in 1997, living as a private small-scale farmer in the west of the country.

At the trial he was asked questions regarding his involvement in the torture and murder of Phung Ton, former dean of Phnom Penh University, but Mam Nai carefully avoided incriminating himself.