Khmer Rouge jailer sentenced to life in prison

[News_Editor]

Khmer Rouge jailer sentenced to life in prison

2012-02-04 10:44:19 GMT+7 (ICT)

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia has increased the sentence of a former Khmer Rouge jailer to life in prison, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Friday.

Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known by his alias Duch, had appealed to reduce his 35-year sentence which he was given in 2010, although he was slated to serve only about 19 years behind bar. Instead, the prison chief at the notorious S-21 detention facility had his jail sentence increased to life.

The 69-year-old was found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture. He pleaded guilty and asked for forgiveness, arguing that he was just following the orders of senior leaders.

"In the Supreme Court Chamber's view, [Duch's] leadership role and particular enthusiasm in the commission of his crimes are aggravating factors that should be given significant weight in the determination of his sentence," Supreme Court Chamber president Kong Srim read from a summary of the judgment. He added that the "particularly shocking and heinous character" of his crimes over an "extended period of time ... undoubtedly place this case among the gravest before international criminal tribunals."

The court ruled that Duch has served 12 years and 269 days of his sentence so far, including time he was illegally detained by the Cambodian Military Court from May 1999, as his detention there was for "broadly similar" reasons as his ultimate conviction. The ruling signals the conclusion of the tribunal's landmark first case.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts Cambodia (ECCC), which was set up under an agreement signed in 2003 by the UN and the Cambodian Government, is tasked with trying those deemed most responsible for crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled the country from April 1975 to January 1979. It is estimated that at least 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's reign.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-02-04

[flying]

I remember when he was originally tried....He admitted to beatings & some form of electric shock being used with a cell phone as some device in the chain.

Along with whipping & beating

He always denied ever using waterboarding or suffocation techniques. Yet there was a site that had paintings done by a former prisoner on the S-21 prison wall of waterboarding

Hopefully all such jailers/torturers will one day be put where they deserve to be.

edit....Here is the story of the prisoner who painted on the walls...Not the site I first saw which was a AP site

but same guy

Take water torture, for instance. Van Nath remembers it as if it were yesterday. I gasped as I entered a room filled with his vivid depictions.

One of his paintings shows a prisoner blindfolded and hoisted onto a makeshift scaffold by two guards. He is then lowered head first into a massive barrel of water. Another shows a prisoner with cloth over his face, writhing as an interrogator pours water over his head.

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-04-07/world/amanpour.pol.pot_1_prison-guards-interrogators-water-torture?_s=PM:WORLD

[Exsexyman]

I remember when he was originally tried....He admitted to beatings & some form of electric shock being used with a cell phone as some device in the chain.

Along with whipping & beating

He always denied ever using waterboarding or suffocation techniques. Yet there was a site that had paintings done by a former prisoner on the S-21 prison wall of waterboarding

Hopefully all such jailers/torturers will one day be put where they deserve to be.

edit....Here is the story of the prisoner who painted on the walls...Not the site I first saw which was a AP site

but same guy

Take water torture, for instance. Van Nath remembers it as if it were yesterday. I gasped as I entered a room filled with his vivid depictions.

One of his paintings shows a prisoner blindfolded and hoisted onto a makeshift scaffold by two guards. He is then lowered head first into a massive barrel of water. Another shows a prisoner with cloth over his face, writhing as an interrogator pours water over his head.

http://articles.cnn....ure?_s=PM:WORLD

"Another shows a prisoner with cloth over his face, writhing as an interrogator pours water over his head". But we all know this is not torture, right!

[chuckd]

Oh, for crying out loud. Just say what you want to say and get it over with.

[cardholder]

Having been to S-21, and the Phnom Penh Killing Field, I hope this b4stard rots in Hell.

[Scott]

Oh, for crying out loud. Just say what you want to say and get it over with.

I suggest the targeted posters NOT respond.

[chuckd]

Sorry, Scott. You're right of course.

[Credo]

It's good to see that some movement is made in this very tragic chapter in human existence.

[scorecard]

It's good to see that some movement is made in this very tragic chapter in human existence.

Agree on at least two counts:

- Punishment for those who committed wrongs.

- A signal to other people / a deterant to other people, do the same and you will get punished.