PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—The accused torturer who is the sole defendant at Cambodia's genocide trial to have apologized for atrocities committed three decades ago by the communist Khmer Rouge regime is seeking to be detained separately from his former comrades, his lawyer said Wednesday.
Kaing Guek Eav (pronounced "Gang Geck Ee-uu") -- better known as Duch ("Doik") -- mesmerized the U.N.-assisted tribunal Tuesday with a personal statement accepting responsibility for crimes committed at his notorious Phnom Penh prison and expressing his "deep regretfulness and ... heartfelt sorrow."
The U.N. assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution during their 1975-79 rule.
Duch, 66, is the first of five surviving leaders of the regime to go before the court. He is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as murder and torture and could face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Cambodia has no death penalty.
He commanded the group's main S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 men women and children are believed to have been brutalized before being sent to their deaths.
Duch's French lawyer, Francois Roux, asked the court Wednesday to release his client from the tribunal's specially built jail to a "safe house," primarily because his rights have been violated by his 10-year detention without trial. Cambodian law prohibits "provisional detention" longer than three years, he said.
After his 1999 arrest, Duch spent seven years in a Cambodian military prison and then nearly three years in the tribunal's new eight-cell jail, which is probably the most comfortable internment facility in the country.
Another reason for moving Duch is that he shares his quarters with four other Khmer Rouge defendants and he will be implicating some of them during his trial over the next few months.
"This is your problem and you cannot avoid it," Roux told the judges.
Duch's fellow detainees are Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.
Co-prosecutor Chea Leang responded that Duch must stay in the tribunal's jail in order to ensure his own safety. She said releasing him would affect the victims' families: "It would make them angry and take revenge on him."
Duch's personal statement of remorse Tuesday included admissions that he knowingly carried out criminal activities but provided scant details of such actions.
Tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said questioning of Duch was expected to start Wednesday. But procedural questions occupied the court's morning session and seemed likely to continue after lunch.
The trial opened Monday with prosecutors reading an indictment that contained wrenching descriptions of the torture and executions that Duch allegedly supervised.
Duch betrayed no emotion as he listened to allegations that his prisoners were beaten, electrocuted, smothered with plastic bags or had water poured into their noses, and that children were taken from parents and dropped to their deaths or that some prisoners were bled to death.
He got his first public opportunity to speak Tuesday.
Duch told the court filled with hundreds of spectators -- including relatives of the victims -- that he tried to avoid becoming commander of Tuol Sleng. But once in the job, he feared for his family's lives if he did not carry out his duty to extract confessions from supposed enemies of the regime.
Nevertheless, he took responsibility for the crimes and offered apologies to the victim's families, and acknowledged that it may be too much to ask for immediate forgiveness for "serious crimes that cannot be tolerated."
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Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh contributed to this report.
Kaing Guek Eav (pronounced "Gang Geck Ee-uu") -- better known as Duch ("Doik") -- mesmerized the U.N.-assisted tribunal Tuesday with a personal statement accepting responsibility for crimes committed at his notorious Phnom Penh prison and expressing his "deep regretfulness and ... heartfelt sorrow."
The U.N. assisted tribunal represents the first serious attempt to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, medical neglect, slave-like working conditions and execution during their 1975-79 rule.
Duch, 66, is the first of five surviving leaders of the regime to go before the court. He is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as murder and torture and could face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Cambodia has no death penalty.
He commanded the group's main S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where as many as 16,000 men women and children are believed to have been brutalized before being sent to their deaths.
Duch's French lawyer, Francois Roux, asked the court Wednesday to release his client from the tribunal's specially built jail to a "safe house," primarily because his rights have been violated by his 10-year detention without trial. Cambodian law prohibits "provisional detention" longer than three years, he said.
After his 1999 arrest, Duch spent seven years in a Cambodian military prison and then nearly three years in the tribunal's new eight-cell jail, which is probably the most comfortable internment facility in the country.
Another reason for moving Duch is that he shares his quarters with four other Khmer Rouge defendants and he will be implicating some of them during his trial over the next few months.
"This is your problem and you cannot avoid it," Roux told the judges.
Duch's fellow detainees are Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouge's former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs; and Nuon Chea, the movement's chief ideologue.
Co-prosecutor Chea Leang responded that Duch must stay in the tribunal's jail in order to ensure his own safety. She said releasing him would affect the victims' families: "It would make them angry and take revenge on him."
Duch's personal statement of remorse Tuesday included admissions that he knowingly carried out criminal activities but provided scant details of such actions.
Tribunal spokeswoman Helen Jarvis said questioning of Duch was expected to start Wednesday. But procedural questions occupied the court's morning session and seemed likely to continue after lunch.
The trial opened Monday with prosecutors reading an indictment that contained wrenching descriptions of the torture and executions that Duch allegedly supervised.
Duch betrayed no emotion as he listened to allegations that his prisoners were beaten, electrocuted, smothered with plastic bags or had water poured into their noses, and that children were taken from parents and dropped to their deaths or that some prisoners were bled to death.
He got his first public opportunity to speak Tuesday.
Duch told the court filled with hundreds of spectators -- including relatives of the victims -- that he tried to avoid becoming commander of Tuol Sleng. But once in the job, he feared for his family's lives if he did not carry out his duty to extract confessions from supposed enemies of the regime.
Nevertheless, he took responsibility for the crimes and offered apologies to the victim's families, and acknowledged that it may be too much to ask for immediate forgiveness for "serious crimes that cannot be tolerated."
------
Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh contributed to this report.
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