Khmer Rouge prison chief convicted

Monday, July 26, 2010
Al Jazeera

Cambodia's UN-backed court has found Kaing Guek Eav, the chief of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 prison, guilty of crimes against humanity.

The only senior member of the Khmer Rouge government to face justice in an international court was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Monday.

Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence from the court, which could have imposed a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Riot police had lined up outside the court on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, on Monday as the court opened to hand down its verdict and Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, arrived in a bullet-proof car.

The 67-year-old remained impassive as the verdict on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder was read out on Monday.

First verdict

The verdict was the first by the court, established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between the government and the UN.

Duch is the only senior Khmer Rouge figure to have acknowledged responsibility to the tribunal.

During nine months of hearings last year, he repeatedly begged forgiveness for overseeing the murders of around 14,000 people at the Tuol Sleng torture centre over three decades ago.

But the former maths teacher then asked to be released on the final day of hearings on grounds that he was not a key leader in the government and was only following orders.

The Khmer Rouge, led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, emptied Cambodia's cities during its 1975-1979 rule, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to take society back to "Year Zero" and forge a Marxist utopia.

Starvation and overwork

An estimated two million people were killed in the notorious "Killing Fields" or died from starvation and overwork before a Vietnamese-backed force toppled the government.

Pol Pot died in 1998 but four other Khmer Rouge leaders, all said to be more senior than Duch, are in custody awaiting trial.

"Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, the former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was the minister of social affairs, are expected to go on trial next year.

Duch has been detained since 1999, when an investigative journalist found him working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle.

He was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.