AsiaOne News
Wed, Apr 01, 2009
AFP
by Patrick Falby
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - Defence lawyers Wednesday demanded that Cambodia's war crimes court release the prison chief of the Khmer Rouge regime, a day after he issued a dramatic apology for his brutal past.
Duch on Tuesday accepted responsibility for supervising the extermination of around 15,000 people between 1975 and 1979 at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison under the hardline communist regime.
Defence lawyer Francois Roux told the UN-backed court that the trial should continue but that Duch ought to be freed immediately, saying his client had been held for an illegal length of time following his 1999 arrest.
"We come before you to request that you put an end to the detention of Duch because it's well beyond the acceptable time limits of Cambodian law and it's also well beyond the time limit for international instruments," Roux said.
"I'm sorry to bring this before you. It's now your problem and you cannot avoid it," he added.
Roux suggested moving Duch to a safe house for his own protection against possible revenge attacks by families of some of the two million people who died during the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule.
He said that another reason for releasing Duch was that he was being held in a detention centre at the court with four other regime leaders at whose trials he is eventually expected to testify.
Roux went on to ask judges to consider subtracting Duch's time in prison from his final sentence and to also soften its eventual verdict to compensate for the alleged violation of his rights.
But prosecutor Chea Leang said previous rulings that denied Duch's release were still valid. It was not up to the hybrid Cambodian-international court to release him, she said, since it has only held him since 2007.
The court's pre-trial chamber had also refused to release Duch - whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav - because of the possibility of attacks.
Duch stunned the court on Tuesday when he stood up to apologise and beg for forgiveness, saying he felt "regret and heartfelt sorrow" for his role in the Khmer Rouge's atrocities.
But survivors expressed scepticism Wednesday that Duch genuinely felt sorry for his brutal past.
"What is inside a human's heart is very secret - we cannot see it clearly," said Vann Nath, one of only about a dozen people who survived Tuol Sleng.
"We cannot totally believe that what he said is all true. We also cannot say that what he said is not true," added Vann Nath, who was only spared because the regime thought his artistic abilities were useful for propaganda.
The defence has indicated it thinks his public expression of remorse, in which he pledged to cooperate with the court, should help bring him a reduced prison sentence. He faces a life term.
On Tuesday he admitted blame for the crimes committed at the prison but said he was a "scapegoat" and had only been following orders from the Maoist movement's top leadership to protect his own family.
The Irish photojournalist who found Duch in hiding a decade ago said he thought it was important that the former torture chief was cooperating with the court.
"Everybody's asking 'Does he truly feel remorse?' But maybe that's the wrong question to ask," said Nic Dunlop outside the court.
The Khmer Rouge rose to power as a tragic spin-off of the conflict in neighbouring Vietnam, launching a disastrous experiment under its leader Pol Pot to transform the country into an agrarian utopia.
Prosecutors on Tuesday recounted the brutal torture techniques taught by Duch and described him as a central figure in the regime's "widespread attack on the population of Cambodia."
The tribunal, formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodian government, has faced controversy over allegations of corruption and political interference. --AFP
Wed, Apr 01, 2009
AFP
by Patrick Falby
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - Defence lawyers Wednesday demanded that Cambodia's war crimes court release the prison chief of the Khmer Rouge regime, a day after he issued a dramatic apology for his brutal past.
Duch on Tuesday accepted responsibility for supervising the extermination of around 15,000 people between 1975 and 1979 at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison under the hardline communist regime.
Defence lawyer Francois Roux told the UN-backed court that the trial should continue but that Duch ought to be freed immediately, saying his client had been held for an illegal length of time following his 1999 arrest.
"We come before you to request that you put an end to the detention of Duch because it's well beyond the acceptable time limits of Cambodian law and it's also well beyond the time limit for international instruments," Roux said.
"I'm sorry to bring this before you. It's now your problem and you cannot avoid it," he added.
Roux suggested moving Duch to a safe house for his own protection against possible revenge attacks by families of some of the two million people who died during the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule.
He said that another reason for releasing Duch was that he was being held in a detention centre at the court with four other regime leaders at whose trials he is eventually expected to testify.
Roux went on to ask judges to consider subtracting Duch's time in prison from his final sentence and to also soften its eventual verdict to compensate for the alleged violation of his rights.
But prosecutor Chea Leang said previous rulings that denied Duch's release were still valid. It was not up to the hybrid Cambodian-international court to release him, she said, since it has only held him since 2007.
The court's pre-trial chamber had also refused to release Duch - whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav - because of the possibility of attacks.
Duch stunned the court on Tuesday when he stood up to apologise and beg for forgiveness, saying he felt "regret and heartfelt sorrow" for his role in the Khmer Rouge's atrocities.
But survivors expressed scepticism Wednesday that Duch genuinely felt sorry for his brutal past.
"What is inside a human's heart is very secret - we cannot see it clearly," said Vann Nath, one of only about a dozen people who survived Tuol Sleng.
"We cannot totally believe that what he said is all true. We also cannot say that what he said is not true," added Vann Nath, who was only spared because the regime thought his artistic abilities were useful for propaganda.
The defence has indicated it thinks his public expression of remorse, in which he pledged to cooperate with the court, should help bring him a reduced prison sentence. He faces a life term.
On Tuesday he admitted blame for the crimes committed at the prison but said he was a "scapegoat" and had only been following orders from the Maoist movement's top leadership to protect his own family.
The Irish photojournalist who found Duch in hiding a decade ago said he thought it was important that the former torture chief was cooperating with the court.
"Everybody's asking 'Does he truly feel remorse?' But maybe that's the wrong question to ask," said Nic Dunlop outside the court.
The Khmer Rouge rose to power as a tragic spin-off of the conflict in neighbouring Vietnam, launching a disastrous experiment under its leader Pol Pot to transform the country into an agrarian utopia.
Prosecutors on Tuesday recounted the brutal torture techniques taught by Duch and described him as a central figure in the regime's "widespread attack on the population of Cambodia."
The tribunal, formed in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodian government, has faced controversy over allegations of corruption and political interference. --AFP
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