( CNN ) -- Cambodia 's war crimes court Friday rejected the appeal a man who ran a Khmer Rouge regime torture prison and instead increased the man 's sentence to life imprisonment . Kaing Guek Eav , commonly known by his alias , Duch , was appealing his 2010 conviction and 35-year sentence arguing that he was just following orders of senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime . Duch was 67 at the time of his convictions , which was for war crimes , crimes against humanity , murder and torture . He was was the head of the S-21 prison where about 14,000 people died . Few people taken to the prison made it out alive ; only about a dozen were found by the Vietnamese , who invaded Cambodia in 1979 . The judge , in announcing Duch 's sentence in 2010 saiid he took into consideration that the defendant had expressed remorse , admitted responsibility and cooperated with the court . The judge also took into account the `` coercive environment '' of the Khmer Rouge , he said . Duch pleaded guilty and asked for forgiveness . In the trial , he argued that international law did not apply to him because he was just following orders . The tribunal began its work in 2007 after a decade of on-and-off negotiations between the United Nations and Cambodia over the structure and functioning of the court . The 2010 verdict was the court 's first . At least 1.7 million people -- nearly a quarter of Cambodia 's population -- died under the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime from execution , disease , starvation and overwork , according to the Documentation Center of Cambodia .
` ` Duch '' ran a notorious political prison in Cambodia in the 1970s . He was sentenced in 2010 to 30 years in prison . At least 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge .