Life term for Cambodia Khmer Rouge jailer Duch

A survivor of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison points to a picture of Khmer Rouge jailer Comrade Duch Continue reading the main story Add caption

2 February 2012
BBC News

Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court has rejected an appeal by Khmer Rouge jailer Duch and increased his sentence to life imprisonment.

Duch, born Kaing Guek Eav, was jailed in 2010 for his role in running a notorious prison where thousands of inmates were killed.

He had appealed on the grounds that he was a junior official following orders.

But judges rejected his claim and increased his sentence from 35 years to life.

Duch - the first senior Khmer Rouge official to face charges before the court - was convicted of crimes against humanity in July 2010. He appealed against the verdict in March 2011.

Hundreds of survivors gathered at the Phnom Penh court to hear the final verdict.

Duch, 69, was the commander of Tuol Sleng prison, where at least 15,000 people deemed enemies of the regime were tortured and then executed.

He had argued that he should never have been tried, claiming that he was a junior official following his superiors' orders on pain of death.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that his sentence was too lenient. Many survivors were outraged when he was sentenced to 35 years, because he could be free in 18 years given time already served.

Duch's case is the first to be concluded by the court against perpetrators of crimes committed during four years of Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970s.

The regime attempted to create an ideal communist society by forcing city residents to work as peasants in the countryside, and by purging intellectuals, middle class people and any supposed enemies of the state.

Up to two million people - about one-third of the population - are believed to have been killed or died of over-work and starvation.

The three most senior surviving leaders of the regime were put on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity in November 2011. Their trial is ongoing.