Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal will deliver its verdict today in the trial of Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, the first cadre of the brutal regime to face justice in an international court.
Duch last year repeatedly used nine months of hearings at Cambodia’s UN-backed court to beg forgiveness for overseeing the murders of around 15,000 people at the Tuol Sleng torture center over three decades ago.
But the former mathematics teacher, 67, one of five senior members of the communist movement detained by the court, surprisingly asked to be released in the final day of hearings on grounds he was not a key leader in the regime.
The verdict on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder will be broadcast live on all television and radio stations in Cambodia.
Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, is the only senior Khmer Rouge figure to have acknowledged responsibility to the tribunal. Prosecutors asked for a 40-year sentence from the court, which cannot impose the death penalty.
“For Duch, the chamber will have to decide whether his apology was genuine, especially in light of his change of plea for acquittal at the end,” said Michelle Staggs, deputy director at the Asian International Justice Initiative.
The Khmer Rouge, led by “Brother No. 1” Pol Pot, emptied Cambodia’s cities during its 1975 to 1979 rule, exiling millions to vast collective farms in a bid to take society back to “Year Zero” and forge a Marxist utopia.
Up to 2 million people were executed in the notorious “Killing Fields” or died from starvation and overwork before a Vietnamese-backed force toppled the regime. Pol Pot died in 1998.
Duch’s verdict will be the first by the Khmer Rouge court, established in 2006 after nearly a decade of negotiations between the government and UN.
Prosecutors spent most of the trial portraying Duch, who was captured in 1999, as a meticulous executioner who built up a huge archive of photos, confessions and other evidence documenting inmates’ final terrible months.
But the trial’s format allowed Duch to comment on all testimony and repeatedly give his own version, painting himself as a terrified bureaucrat who performed his duty out of fear leaders would kill him and his family.
“I tried to survive on a daily basis, and that’s what happened. And yes, you can say I am a cowardly person,” Duch told the court in September last year.
Before he made his surprise demand, the defense had indicated it hoped contrite testimony by Duch, a born-again Christian, would earn him a reduced sentence.
Few expect judges to take his acquittal demand seriously, although analysts speculate he will appeal his sentence after it was announced this month he sacked his French lawyer Francois Roux for “lack of confidence.”
Duch will continue to be represented by his Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, while the court itself has faced controversy during the trial.
There have been allegations that Cambodian staff paid kickbacks for their jobs, while Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, a one-time low-level Khmer Rouge member, has made fiery speeches opposing pursuing more suspects on the grounds that it could destabilize the country.
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