Appeal gets under way for former Khmer Rouge security chief

Monday, Mar. 28, 2011
By ROBERT CARMICHAEL - dpa

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia The prosecution at the international war crimes court on Monday rejected as baseless the grounds for acquittal sought on appeal by Comrade Duch, the Khmer Rouge's former security chief.

Duch headed the notorious torture and execution center known as S-21. The tribunal last year sentenced him to 35 years for his role in the deaths of at least 12,272 detainees from 1976 to 1979.

Earlier on Monday, lawyers for Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, said the U.N.-backed tribunal lacked jurisdiction over their client since he was not a senior Khmer Rouge cadre and had merely followed orders.

But prosecutor Chea Leang argued that the defense challenge to the court had come far too late and ought to have been made at the start of the trial in early 2009.

She added the court had previously ruled Duch fell within its remit as one of those "most responsible" for the regime's crimes.

"In addition, Duch himself frequently acknowledged his responsibility for crimes committed within the framework of S-21 as chief of the center," Chea Leang said.

Monday marked the start of Duch's appeal against his conviction of war crimes and crimes against humanity. His sentence was reduced to 19 years for time already served and as compensation for being held illegally prior to trial.

The appeal was scheduled to last three days, with a verdict expected in June.

Defense lawyer Kar Savuth gave an address in which he called for his client to be acquitted since he claimed the court did not have jurisdiction over Duch and had erred in prosecuting and convicting him.

"And during the Khmer Rouge regime, there was no law - the Communist Party line was used in its place," he said. "And if there was no law, then there was no crime."

Anne Heindel, a legal adviser for DC-Cam, a genocide research organization in Phnom Penh, said the defense's tack was unconvincing.

"They keep making the same argument over and again that Duch does not fall within the category of senior leaders and those most responsible," Heindel said. "I don't really think that the judges will find any of (those arguments) compelling."

She said it was likely that the 68-year-old defendant would end up with a longer sentence, something the prosecution has sought.

Duch is the first person the international court has found guilty of crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia between 1975-79.

The tribunal was established to try surviving senior leaders and those considered "most responsible" for crimes committed by the ultra-Maoist regime. Duch has been prosecuted in the latter category.

Duch's nine-month trial in 2009 saw him mount a spectacular turnaround when in its final days he reversed his "guilty but sorry" plea, and asked to be acquitted and released.

His appeal comes months ahead of the start of the second - and possibly final - case that the Khmer Rouge tribunal will hear.

Four senior former Khmer Rouge leaders are set to face trial on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in the deaths of up to 2.2 million people from execution, disease, starvation and overwork.

All four deny the charges.

The four are: Nuon Chea, the movement's ideologue; head of state Khieu Samphan; foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith.

The Khmer Rouge's most senior leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.