Friday, December 24, 2010

Duch appeal hearings set for March

(Photo: Reuters)
Thursday, 23 December 2010
James O’Toole and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

The Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Supreme Court Chamber will hear the appeal of former Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav in March of next year, the court said in a statement Thursday.

The notorious jailer, better known as Duch, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in July by the court’s Trial Chamber after being found guilty of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The court said his appeal hearings will take place “during the last week of March 2011”, adding that the exact dates and times of the hearings will be announced “in due course”.

“We expect that [the hearings] will be public,” court spokesman Reach Sambath said. “I think the court will always be full of people.”


Duch’s lawyers filed an appeal against the judgment last month, charging that their client falls outside the court’s mandate to investigate “senior leaders” and those “most responsible” for crimes committed under the regime of Democratic Kampuchea.

The appeal followed the shocking turnabout last year during closing arguments when, after accepting limited responsibility and essentially pleading guilty through months of hearings, Duch asked to be acquitted and released.

The court’s prosecutors have also appealed against the July verdict, claiming that judges had given “insufficient weight to the gravity of Duch’s crimes and his role and his willing participation in those crimes”.

They have called on the Supreme Court Chamber to sentence the defendant to 45 years in prison, reduced from a life sentence due to Duch’s unlawful pre-trial detention.

“There comes a point where the crimes committed are sufficiently grave and the offender sufficiently notorious, or in such a position of authority, that the highest sentence must be imposed,” the prosecutors wrote in their appeal. “That point was reached and passed here.”

41 civil parties have also appealed, requesting either that the court declare their claims admissible or amend their reparations award.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah duch and company, your time is up. you and evil company instigated a killer regime in cambodia during your watch, so, you are all responsible for what happened, period! to further give any more excuse to your lame excuses tantamount to doing an injustice to the victims and survivors under your cruel, brutal regime, ok! enough said already!

Anonymous said...

ឌុចថាៈ
-​មិនមែនខុសតែអញទេ !
ពួកមានអំណាចសព្វថ្ងៃនេះក៏មាន
ខុសដែរ !! បើមិនជឿ លែងអញ
សិន អញនឹងដើរចង្អុលមុខ ។

Anonymous said...

At the beginning, in 1975,
Keat Chhon was finance minister of 1st Khmer rouge government,
now Keat Chhon is finance minister of Hun Sen
why he is survived ?
he was where from 1975 to 1979 ?

Anonymous said...

well, don't you know the strongest will always survive in any situation, really! and don't underestimate the intelligence and smart and clever, too, ok, these are a life skill we all can learn from in order to survive, you know! when push comes to shove, common sense, the animal animal or primitive instinct in all of us comes into play. yes, occasionally do tap into the god within us all, ok! wake up, people! it's called life. c'est la vie, n'est-ce pas? vraiment!

Anonymous said...

Prime minister Hun Sen! your lost your land and sea again, next time Cambodian border next to your home, Heng Somrin he lost his entire home village to Viet already but dare to say nothing, Chea Sim is too weak to say anything except prepare himself for judgement day, where is our belove king please get out from closet and give a big slap on Hun Sen face and say louder "why you gave my land and sea to Viet and punish my people hasss!"?, His majesty the king you can not stay in closet for too long, Cambodian are waiting for you to do something, you have no wife no kid must not afraid to die, you will be our hero king forever.

Anonymous said...

Keat Chhon was/is Vietminh secret agent hiding behind any goverment administtations.
Keat Chhon can be a cat,a dog,a bird,a tiger,a lion,and can be a pegeon.
This is the last day of Keat Chhon life.If Hun Sen is dead.

Anonymous said...

Respont to your comment...I do agreed with you, nation in the world should have two parteis one opposing the other for the benfites of the nation, And you also said I am pro CPP or... ok you are right. I wish to reafirm and make it clear about my conccept, I derict my idea on leadership only. I used to be SRP member and work very close to sam rainsy, now here is the pionts you know and clearly understand that we wast alote of our time, energy and money to support him, I Spend 300 $ in every communt ellection and much mores, Sam rainsy, he is a good talker, he enjioy working alone he not work well with other, he got weak team work, in 1998 to 2008 he got great chance to wine, he did not see that advatage. If you search a bit you will clearly see, Rainsy he lack leadership skile, he not set clear deriction, and his mentality are not tough to push his team and himeself past the breaking piont to victory. Now looke to the future, most peoples in cambodia they are not going to believe or thruth him any more would you happy with leadershipe like Sam rainsy, he is not stricness, less moral, very bossing, careless for his supporter, In fact he try to make himself become priminister of cambodia that he only care about, not khmer. He lead demostration, and stope foreign donation, he try to kill Hun sen 4 times, I allway call hime street wild act, becouse
he is not the man for you and me to support. if you go to cambodia you will find out that many of his supporter, are involve in crimnal act.
Regards

Anonymous said...

FUCK THIS SHIT....LET THE PAST GO AND LET THAT MAN GO. OBVIOUSLY HE LOOK LIKE HE'S A CHANGED MAN AND YOU FUCKEN PEOPLE ACT AS IF HE KILLED THE WHOLE MILLIONS OF CAMBODIANS WHO DIED DURING POL POT. IM PRETTY SURE IF HE DIDN'T DO HIS DUTY DUCH WILL SURELY DIE TOO. THERE'S MORE THINGS TO BE WORRYING ABOUT...LIKE HUN XEN AND ALL OF THE OTHER FUCKEN BASTARD WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO RULE CAMBODIA.

Anonymous said...

duch, tell the truth, why you and your stupid KR regime hate cambodia and killed so many khmer people during your brutal era in power? why? are you guys that stupid?

Anonymous said...

You guy so naive, when I was a student I was always thought about nation, corruption, immigration, patriotism as everyone have thought but when it come to the money I and others have forgotten everythings, you can talk what ever you like but behind close door you guy are all the same as always think about how to get rich and looking for good position (kan leng Klanh or fat place).

you guy train as Nuclear Technician but work as finance, Keat Chhun as an example, Pot Pot studied electrical engineering and work as Communist, Hun Sen son Dr of economy work as military or security and countless of others. The more you guy get smart the more you guy got grazy, Pol Pot,Eang Sary, Kheav Somphon...kill alots of people, Currently so called intellectual person, example Cambodian court, what they have done to our country and put blame on innocent and uneducate person. War, corruption always made by educated person and use uneducate people as a tool. At countryside, I saw peasants make money in honest way and united, everyone was looked after. Unlike the intellectual one are always hunting for money and when ask for support they turn to support the communist, students and intellectual in Lon Nol Regime as an example, Lon Nol Collapsed as result of series of demonstration to support the Communist. if You are not work in the field that you are training for the country will be in trouble.

Study in America come to Cambodia looking for fat place, study in Australia without qualification but act like the one who have, study in Cambodia there no need to research just memorise what in the lecture note or bribe that it.

when come to work in government position 1 or 2 hours then go home or do something else, please do not say because of salary is too low, if you guy all donnot bother to work for the government then the country stand still then the government may consider high salary, because you guy rush to get position thatwise the salary go down.