Anne Barrowclough
Times Online (UK)
Cambodian prosecutors have called for the former prison chief in charge of the Khmer Rouge's main torture centre to receive a long jail term for his role in the torture and murder of thousands of Cambodians during Pol Pot's genocidal regime.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, has admitted responsibility and apologised for the atrocities committed at Tuol Sleng or S-21, the regime's most notorious prison, when he was director there between 1977 - 1979.
Under Duch, the prison was less a jail than an ante-room to death. Of the 15,000 men, women and children who were sent to S-21, only 15 emerged alive. Prisoner were tortured into confessing imaginary crimes against the State and then were bludgeoned to death, had their throats and stomachs slit open, or were literally bled to death.
During closing arguments at the UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh today, prosecutors argued that the 67-year-old former maths teacher was "the personification of ruthless efficiency" and the "perfect candidate" to run the movement's model political prison.
"It does not matter that others may not admit their guilt or fail to co-operate with authorities," prosecutor Chea Leang told the court.
"It is simply inconceivable that anything other than a lengthy sentence of imprisonment should be imposed on him."
Duch faces a maximum life sentence as the tribunal does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Despite his repeated apologies to his victims, the former torturer-in-chief has continued to claim that he acted under orders from his superiors, and was often frightened for his own life as he saw his peers taken to be executed.
However the prosecution argued that he played a vital role in keeping Pol Pot's regime in power.
"S-21 formed an integral and indeed vital role in a widespread attack on the population of Cambodia," Ms Chea told the court at the start of Duch's nine month long trial. "The accused's crimes were part of this attack.
"Once detained there [at S-21] ... new prisoners would in turn be tortured until they confessed to being enemies, implicating their friends, colleagues, and neighbours, creating a new list of traitors to be arrested, tortured and smashed.
"By his knowledge of this attack ... Duch, as head of S-21, plays a key role in its implementation."
Duch has been detained since 1999, when he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle, and was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.
A verdict is expected in March 2010.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, has admitted responsibility and apologised for the atrocities committed at Tuol Sleng or S-21, the regime's most notorious prison, when he was director there between 1977 - 1979.
Under Duch, the prison was less a jail than an ante-room to death. Of the 15,000 men, women and children who were sent to S-21, only 15 emerged alive. Prisoner were tortured into confessing imaginary crimes against the State and then were bludgeoned to death, had their throats and stomachs slit open, or were literally bled to death.
During closing arguments at the UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh today, prosecutors argued that the 67-year-old former maths teacher was "the personification of ruthless efficiency" and the "perfect candidate" to run the movement's model political prison.
"It does not matter that others may not admit their guilt or fail to co-operate with authorities," prosecutor Chea Leang told the court.
"It is simply inconceivable that anything other than a lengthy sentence of imprisonment should be imposed on him."
Duch faces a maximum life sentence as the tribunal does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Despite his repeated apologies to his victims, the former torturer-in-chief has continued to claim that he acted under orders from his superiors, and was often frightened for his own life as he saw his peers taken to be executed.
However the prosecution argued that he played a vital role in keeping Pol Pot's regime in power.
"S-21 formed an integral and indeed vital role in a widespread attack on the population of Cambodia," Ms Chea told the court at the start of Duch's nine month long trial. "The accused's crimes were part of this attack.
"Once detained there [at S-21] ... new prisoners would in turn be tortured until they confessed to being enemies, implicating their friends, colleagues, and neighbours, creating a new list of traitors to be arrested, tortured and smashed.
"By his knowledge of this attack ... Duch, as head of S-21, plays a key role in its implementation."
Duch has been detained since 1999, when he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle, and was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.
A verdict is expected in March 2010.
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