by Sara Nichol
Evening Chronicle (UK)
TYRANNICAL Cambodian leader Pol Pot’s chief executioner will spend the rest of his life in jail after killing a Tyneside backpacker more than 30 years ago.
John Dewhirst, 26, of Jesmond, Newcastle, was sailing with a group of men in 1978 when their yacht was intercepted by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime.
Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was commander of the top secret Tuol Sleng prison – code-named S-21 – at the time. He admitted to overseeing the torture of his prisoners before sending them for execution at the “killing fields”.
In July 2010, the tribunal’s lower court convicted Duch of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder.
He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but had 11 years shaved off for time served and other technicalities. But prosecutors appealed against the sentence, branding it too lenient.
Now, more than 33 years after he murdered Mr Dewhirst, the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Supreme Court has ordered the regime’s chief jailer to spend the rest of his life in prison because of his “shocking and heinous” crimes against the Cambodian people.
It was a decision welcomed by Mr Dewhirst’s sister Hilary Holland, but she said it didn’t take away the pain of how she lost her brother.
Ms Holland, 56, a solicitor from Brampton, Cumbria, said: “I do welcome the decision. I feel, as far as justice is concerned, it is the correct thing. From my feeling of what justice means, there couldn’t be any other outcome.
“It would be wrong for him to be released. But, as far as getting any relief or anything like that from it, I don’t because my distress at what happened to my brother isn’t going to get any less.”
In 1978, Mr Dewhirst was captured, tortured and killed at now infamous prison Tuol Sleng. He was the only Briton among 17,000 Cambodians to die at the jail.
An aspiring novelist, John left home after finishing his A-levels to explore and bought a ticket to Tokyo, where he got a teaching post and a job on a newspaper.
He quit in 1978, aged 26, after deciding to join pals on travels around the Gulf of Thailand in their boat The Foxy Lady. But when they drifted into Cambodian waters, a Khmer Rouge military launch swooped.
Duch’s original sentence was challenged both by prosecutors who called for life imprisonment and by Duch, 69, who argued it was too harsh because he was merely following orders.
However, the judge said that the penalty should be more severe because the jailer was responsible for the deaths of so many. The tribunal said Duch oversaw the deaths of at least 12,272 victims, but estimates have placed the number as high as 16,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment