Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch found guilty

26 July 2010
BBC News

Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court has taken four years to conclude its first case

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch has been found guilty of crimes against humanity by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal.

Duch, 67, whose full name is Kaing Guek Eav, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

He has admitted overseeing the deaths of up to 15,000 people who entered Tuol Sleng prison, and asked for forgiveness during the public hearings.

The verdict is the first from the court.

Prosecutors had asked the judges for a 40-year prison sentence.

Duch, wearing a blue shirt, looked pensive and slumped in his chair as the tribunal was held behind a huge bullet-proof screen.

He ran the Tuol Sleng prison, where "enemies" of the Khmer Rouge regime were sent.

Up to two million people died because of the policies of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979.

They included the evacuation of cities, forced labour in the rice fields and the summary execution of those considered enemies of the revolution.

The group's top leader, "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, died in 1998.

'Following orders'

Duch, the first of five surviving senior figures of the Khmer Rouge to go on trial, was widely expected to be found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the court outside Phnom Penh.

Despite acknowledging his role he played at Tuol Sleng, codenamed "S-21", he insisted that he had only been following orders from his superiors, and on the trial's final day in November shocked many by asking to be acquitted.

"I tried to survive on a daily basis, and that's what happened. And yes, you can say I am a cowardly person," Duch had earlier testified.

But prosecutors said the former maths teacher ordered the use of brutal torture methods to extract "confessions" from detainees - including pulling out toenails and administering electric shocks - and approved all the executions.

A meticulous record-keeper, Duch built up a huge archive of photos, confessions and other evidence documenting the those held at Tuol Sleng.

In one memo he kept, a guard asked him what to do with six boys and three girls accused of being traitors. He replied: "Kill every last one."

After the Khmer Rouge were overthrown, Duch disappeared for almost two decades, living under various aliases in north-western Cambodia and converting to Christianity. His chance discovery by a British journalist led to his arrest in 1999.

Only 14 of the around 15,000 people who were held at Tuol Sleng are thought to have survived, three of whom are still alive.

One of them, Chum Mey, has talked of rubbing salt and pepper into Duch's skin - an echo of the torture inflicted on the inmates, our correspondent adds.

The other Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting trial are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan, former foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, the minister of social affairs.