Cambodia's Khmer Rouge prison boss Kaing Guek Eav tells war crimes trial that his 10 years already served is enough
The Khmer Rouge prison boss who admitted responsibility for the torture and murder of more than 12,000 people today stunned a war crimes court by asking to be acquitted and released.
On the last day of a nine-month trial, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, asked the judges to consider his co-operation with the court and the 10 years he had already served in jail and set him free.
In the last sentence of his final summing up, he said: "I would ask the chamber to release me, thank you very much."
The extraordinary request came just two days after he told the court he was ultimately accountable for the deaths that occurred while he headed the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. "I am solely and individually responsible for the loss of at least 12,380 lives," he said.
This morning an astounded bench asked Duch's lawyer, Kar Savuth, to clarify his statement, asking if his plea to be released was a request for acquittal.
"Release means acquittal," the court was told.
Duch's request enraged Bou Meng, one of only a dozen prisoners to walk out of Tuol Sleng alive. He stormed from the public gallery, describing Duch's plea as an insult to his wife's memory.
"I could not accept the request for the release by Duch, because many people, including my wife, have been killed during the Khmer Rouge time. He cannot step on the victims like this." Full Article
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/27/cambodia-duch-asks-court-freedom
