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Khmer Rouge chief jailer gets life for 'shocking' crimes
Loses appeal to reduce earlier sentence
- AP
- Published: 00:00 February 4, 2012
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Kaing Guek Eav
Phnom Penh: The Khmer Rouge tribunal's Supreme Court on Friday ordered the regime's chief jailer to serve out the rest of his life in prison because of his "shocking and heinous" crimes against the Cambodian people.
The surprise ruling increased a lower court's 19-year sentence that had been appealed by prosecutors as too lenient and that had outraged survivors who feared the man who oversaw the killing of thousands could one day walk free.
Kaing Guek Eav, 69, known as Duch, was the first defendant to be tried by the tribunal. He was commander of Phnom Penh's top secret Tuol Sleng prison — code-named S-21. 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 (pronounced Doik) 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. The sentence was appealed both by prosecutors, who called for life imprisonment, and by Duch, who argued it was too harsh because he was merely following orders. However, Judge Kong Srim, president of the Supreme Court Chamber, said yesterday that the upper court felt the penalty should be more severe because the former jailer was responsible for the brutal deaths of so many.
"The crimes of Kaing Guek Eav were of a particularly shocking and heinous character based on the number of people who were proven to have been killed," the judge said. The tribunal says Duch oversaw the deaths of at least 12,272 victims but estimates have placed the number as high as 16,000.
Andrew Cayley, the British co-prosecutor, said Duch can request a pardon after 20 years served, in this case, that will be about seven years from now.
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