Cambodia: Khmer Rouge prison commander jailed for life

last updated Feb 09, 2012

On 3 February 2012, the UN backed genocide court in Cambodia (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, ECCC) rejected the appeal of the former prison commander Duch and increased his sentence to life imprisonment. Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch was the director of the Tuol Sleng prison, the most prominent prison of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, where torture was routine and the majority of detainees ended up in the so-called killing fields outside of Phnom Penh. He was convicted of crimes against humanity in July 2010 and appealed against the verdict in March 2011 on the grounds that he was a junior official following orders.