First verdicts due in Cambodia's war crimes trial of last living Khmer Rouge leaders

In this July 10, 2014 photo, a tourist looks at human skulls of genocide victims at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, formerly the most notorious Khmer Rouge prison, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A U.N.-assisted court on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014 will deliver its verdicts in a case against the two most senior surviving leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, charged with crimes against humanity. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (The Associated Press)

In this July 30, 2014 photo, Cambodian Buddhist monks read the court document books during a court break of a hearing to prepare for the genocide trial of two surviving leaders Khieu Samphan and Noun Chea, at the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A U.N.-assisted court on Thursday, Aug 7, 2014 will deliver its verdicts in a case against the two most senior surviving leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, charged with crimes against humanity. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (The Associated Press)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – A U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal is due to deliver its first verdicts Thursday in a historic case against the only two living leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime on trial.

The verdict comes three and a half decades after the group's genocidal rule ended, leaving nearly 2 million people dead.

Khieu Samphan, the regime's 83-year-old former president, and Nuon Chea, its 88-year-old chief ideologue, face sentences ranging from five years to life for their actions in the 1970s terror.

Both men, in dire health, have denied any wrongdoing.

The case began in 2011.

It covers the forced exodus of millions of people from Cambodia's towns and cities and a mass killing.