DHAKA: UN-backed Cambodian tribunal has begun hearing the first genocide case against the country's 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, aljazeera.com reports.

Khieu Samphan, the regime's head of state, and Nuon Chea, right-hand man to the goup's late leader, Pol Pot, have already received life sentences in August after being found guilty of charges including crimes against humanity.

They are now facing separate charges of genocide related mostly to the group's forced movement of millions of people to the countryside when it took power in 1975.

The radical policies are blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, exhaustion, disease and execution. Both men have appealed their convictions.

The trial, which started in July, reopened on Friday with an opening statement by the prosecutors, and an opportunity for the accused to respond.

Deputy co-prosecutor William Smith said the hearings "will ensure a more comprehensive accounting" of the crimes of which the ex-leaders are accused, so that "Cambodia's past is not buried but built and learnt from".

Prosecutors are expected to call upon their first witness on Monday.

The complex case against the pair was split into a series of smaller trials in 2011 to get a faster verdict given the vast number of accusations and the advanced age of the accused.

BDST: 1544 HRS, OCT 17, 2014