Khmer Rouge Jailer Loses Appeal and Received Life Imprisonment Sentence
An appeal by a former Khmer Rouge jailer, Kaing Guek Eav, who is also known as Duch, has been rejected by Cambodia’s genocide court. The court is backed by the United Nations and the denial of the appeal also came with an increased prison sentence – life.
Duch has been in jail since 2010 when he was convicted of operating a prison in Cambodia where thousands of prisoners were killed. He filed the appeal because he felt that he did not deserve the prison sentence because he was only following orders. The judges that heard the appeal did not feel that Duch was given an appropriate sentence and increased it from 35 years to life.
Duch is the first senior official of the Khmer Rouge to come before the court. The 69 year old was in charge of the Toul Sleng prison. More than 15,000 men, women, and children were executed in what became known as the “killing fields.” It was located outside of Phnom Penh. Duch’s defense was that he was a junior official at the time and was only following orders from more senior officers.
Prosecutors felt that the 35 year sentence handed down in the original trial was too lenient. With time served, Duch could have been paroled in 18 years. The appeals court agreed with prosecutors and said that the 35 year sentence didn’t reflect just how horrific Duch’s crimes were. The judges said that Duch’s crimes were among the worst ever recorded in the history of mankind and therefore, deserved the highest penalty.
Many who survived the prison gathered to hear the appeals verdict. It’s the first case that has come to a conclusion that dealt with crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia for four years and tried to create what they believed would be an ideal communist society. There are some estimates that put the number of people killed at more than two million. There are still three more Khmer Rouge leaders currently on trial for crimes against humanity and genocide.
