Duch reading documents during a court session on 23rd November, 2009.Prosecutors in the trial of the Khmer Rouge’s alleged torturer-in-chief have demanded a 40-year sentence.
The man known by Pol Pot’s regime as Comrade Duch, now aged 67, has admitted running the Cambodian torture camp S-21. But he told the UN-backed war crimes court in Phnom Penh that he was sorry for his actions.
One survivor of the infamous S-21 camp was less than happy:
“I’m not satisfied with the 40-years in prison. Its just not fair, I want him to serve life.”
Within the confines of S-21, 17,000 were tortured and forced to confess to crimes against the regime, then put to death in the so-called killing fields outside Phnom Penh.
The few who got out alive described a routine of beatings, electric shocks and other grisly torture techniques, including surgery without anaesthetics.
The reign of terror unleashed by the Khmer Rouge between 1974 and 1979 saw at least 200,000 people killed in 196 death camps that littered the country.
The trial of four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders is due in 2011.
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