Khmer Rouge Trial: Kaing Guek Eav, Chief Jailer, Gets Life In Prison

In this photo released by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison commander Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, sits in the courtroom for a session of U.N.-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as the court gives verdict on appeal filed by Duch against his conviction Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Nhet Sok Heng)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The Khmer Rouge tribunal's Supreme Court has ordered the regime's chief jailer to serve life imprisonment, a surprise ruling that stiffens a 19-year sentence imposed by a lower court.

Kaing Guek Eav – also known as Duch – was commander of the notorious S-21 prison where thousands of Cambodians were tortured before execution"

In 2010, the tribunal's lower court convicted him of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder.

He was sentenced to 35 years in prison but had 11 years shaved off.

The sentence was appealed by prosecutors who called it too lenient and by Duch who argued it was too harsh.

Friday's ruling marks the end of the tribunal's first war crimes case, which came more than 30 years after the Khmer Rouge's brutal reign.

Comments

[LIBERALandProudOfIt]

06:04 AM on 02/07/2012

Since Cambodia no longer has the death sentence, they should torture him every day for the rest of his life.

Surely that's still legal there, after all, Bush & Cheney made it legal here.

[Payd Troll]

05:26 PM on 02/06/2012

he'll get what's coming to him, somewhere, sometime.

[grizzly bear55]

10:05 PM on 02/05/2012

he does not look like he would survive the 19 years, another 100 years would not make a difference.

I would make him dig the mass graves by hand the remaining of his miserable life.

[dogman44]

02:25 PM on 02/04/2012

If anything remains of the S-21 compound imprison this piece of human garbage there.
Let the spirits of his innocent victims have their way with him.

[Carl E Mott III]

01:45 AM on 02/06/2012

It's a museum filled tourists.

[tracerhaha1]

04:31 PM on 02/06/2012

Good, maybe then he could be exhibit1 on the way thing were there.

[nhop]

08:50 AM on 02/06/2012

In several rooms on the second floor of the former S-21, large bulletin boards contain pictures of people killed in the prison and in the "killing fields" just outside the city. One room is dedicated to pix of young children. Few of them were killed in S-21; most were taken to the killing fields. There, to save bullets, they were lifted by their ankles and swung into a large tree, crushing their heads. Duch deserved as much; but today's Cambodia has banned the death penalty.

[dogman44]

12:59 PM on 02/06/2012

Sometimes I'm not as tough as I think I am. The mental image of the slaughter of the
children made me break down and cry. I've always seen the Nazis as the epitome of
twentieth century evil. Thank the gods that the Khmer Rouge didn't have the industrial
base.

[bigdaddyvike]

04:17 PM on 02/03/2012

Wiki S-21 and it pretty much details why this guy should never ever be free.

[psnyder325]

12:24 PM on 02/03/2012

When are those in the U.S. responsible for torture and false imprisonment going to face a war-crimes tribunal? We could hold it at Gitmo and keep Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, et. al. incarcerated there indefinitely until the tribunal got around to hearing their cases....in 10 or 20 years....

[ghost geezer]

03:16 PM on 02/03/2012

Yup. Won't happen. Should have. Johnson should have had the book thrown
at him for his fraudulent intelligence driven escalation of Vietnam. This is all treason
and mass murder of our own troops, not to speak of all those who were killed whom
we label enemies or "collateral damage." We are to pay for this hypocritical response.
If we do not hold criminal leaders accountable, then we are accountable.

[psnyder325]

04:35 PM on 02/03/2012

Agreed. Korea was an illegal war. Vietnam was an illegal war. Iraq was an illegal war (both times). Afghanistan was an illegal and unnecessary war. All of the "leaders" who started these illegal and unnecessary wars should have been tried and convicted of war crimes.

[FlagAsAbusive]

11:55 AM on 02/03/2012

While I served in the military ,in 75 I was stationed in Thailand not far from the Cambodian border. We were tasked with information gathering and assessment. We had to watch the genocide committed by the Khmer Rogue first had and were powerless to do anything about it. To this day those memories still haunt me.

[leobeverly]

11:23 AM on 02/03/2012

Put him in a 7X7 ft room and force him to watch "Full House" reruns for the rest of his miserable life. That will show him the true meaning of "Hell".

[3daywkend]

05:28 PM on 02/04/2012

or "Housewives of Atlanta".

[stacknef]

10:59 AM on 02/03/2012

about time!

[intelsec]

10:10 AM on 02/03/2012

life in a tiger cage half submerged in a muddy river would be a better sentence.

[tkernhickory]

10:18 AM on 02/03/2012

That was Kennedy and Johnson's War.......and writers and historians have documented that Kennedy waited silently for the word and was sad by the news the the coup he approved with the South Vietnamese to kill President Diem was finalized.

[kilchis]

01:40 PM on 02/03/2012

Funny,I was there when Nixon was President an 25,000 of our guys died on his watch.

[SaulBloodworth]

12:13 PM on 02/05/2012

It was the war of the American people. Nobody cares who was President when.

[Glenda Barker]

09:46 AM on 02/03/2012

He's still getting off easy..

[hinoedd]

09:46 AM on 02/03/2012

now if we couild send all the c f r NEOCONS TO CAMBODIA FOR CRIMES PERPETRATED AGIANST CAMBODIA AKA HENRY KISSINGER RUMSFLED CHENEY JR WALKER BUSH,HW BUSH WE COULD ETHIC CLEANSE AMERICA OF THE RWINGERS AND FEDERALISTS EVEN THE KOCH BROS COULD USE SOME TIME IN PHOM PENH CAMBODIA SINCE THEYWANNA TAKE MY FREEDOMS AWAY

[messy]

07:10 PM on 02/05/2012

Yeah, the fellow was one of the GOOD GUYS!!!!! He was fighting the evil americans and those 2.5 million collaberators.

[estimatorone]

09:30 AM on 02/03/2012

He should consider himself very lucky. This guy got away with murder,
and other crimes, for over 30 years. He probably lived high off the hog
during those years. From the looks of this guy, he probably won't
serve anywhere near the sentence that was imposed on him. Also,
they will probably spring him early if he gets sick. And, he certainly
won't be subjected to the horror that he imposed on his chargees.
They should at least seize any property/money this guy has and
give it to some of the families of his victems.

[Billy Jack]

09:25 AM on 02/03/2012

"Its a holiday in Cambodia"! Dead Kennedys