Khmer Rouge torture victims seek justice in appeal

30 March 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH : Survivors and relatives of some of the 15,000 people who died in a Khmer Rouge prison listened as its torture chief Duch pleaded for absolution on the last day of his appeal on Wednesday.

"I still maintain my position to ask for forgiveness for the souls of the victims... and for the families of those victims to accept my apology," he told the hearing, which also saw a last attempt by those affected to win increased reparations.

Cambodia's UN-backed court sentenced Duch in July to 30 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing mass murder at the notorious prison Tuol Sleng - or S-21 - in the late 1970s.

Reading from a handwritten note, the bespectacled 68-year-old, who is seeking acquittal, told the court he only survived the brutal regime "because I respectfully and strictly followed the orders", even if at times he felt "very depressed".

The only reparations the court awarded the victims, known as the civil parties, werer to include their names in the judgement and agree to publish Duch's apologies.

Financial compensation for victims is not an option but their lawyers on Wednesday called for other forms of collective and moral redress, such as memorials or free psychological support.

Their appeal followed those of the defence and the prosecution earlier this week and marked "the last moment for civil parties to get justice", Brice Poirier from Avocats Sans Frontieres France, which represents some of the victims, told AFP.

Lawyers also asked for more civil parties to be admitted after the lower court rejected 24 of the 90 applicants, saying they had failed to prove their harm was closely linked to Duch's actions.

This had caused "distress" to individuals already "traumatised once by the actions of the accused", lawyer Karim Khan told the Supreme Court Chamber.

Duch maintained that he was acting "under duress" and fell outside the court's jurisdiction in his final address to the court at the end of the session on Wednesday.

In their appeal on Monday, the defence team called for Duch's acquittal and release.

They said the court had no right to try him in the first place because he was "just a minor secretary" following orders and not a senior leaders nor one of those most responsible for the crimes committed.

The prosecution argued on Tuesday that Duch had failed to show "real, sincere remorse" and demanded life imprisonment, to be reduced to 45 years for time spent in unlawful detention before the tribunal was established.

A ruling on the appeals is expected in late June.

Duch was originally given a 35-year jail sentence but this was reduced for the period of illegal detention.

Given time already served, he could walk free in less than 19 years, to the dismay of many victims of the brutal 1975-1979 regime.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out up to two million people through starvation, overwork and execution.

S-21, in Phnom Penh, was at the centre of the regime's security apparatus and thousands were taken from there for execution at a nearby "killing field".

Duch has been detained since 1999, when he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle. He was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.

Court observers told AFP the defence team had presented a weaker appeal case than the prosecutors.

"The prosecution has been more convincing legally," said Anne Heindel, a legal advisor to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which collects evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities. "The defence arguments sounded disjointed and are largely unsupported."

Clair Duffy, a court monitor with the Open Society Justice Initiative added that the defence failed to respond to many of the prosecution's "extensive arguments" for a longer sentence, "other than by repeatedly coming back to the argument that Duch wasn't 'most responsible'."