Bou Meng, Rare Tuol Sleng Prison Survivor, Dies at 85

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum announced the death of Bou Meng, a Cambodian painter and rare survivor of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 torture prison, on Friday. He was 85 years old.

Imprisoned in 1977, Bou Meng survived the facility where approximately 14,000 people were interrogated and most were executed. Guards spared his life specifically to paint portraits of Pol Pot, Marx, and Lenin. He later became a fixture at the museum located on the former prison site, serving as a living symbol of the atrocities committed between 1975 and 1979 that killed an estimated 1.7 million people.

In 2009, Bou Meng provided testimony during the trial of prison commandant Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who received a life sentence for his crimes. The museum provided no further details regarding the cause of death.