26 July 2010: Comrade Duch sentenced for Crimes Against Humanity in Cambodia
On 26 July 2010 following a trial that lasted for nine months Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the genocide in Cambodia.
Tuol Sleng prisoners © David Parker
After an appeal by prosecutors, his sentence was increased to life imprisonment on 3 February 2012. The decision is final and cannot be appealed.
Comrade Duch was head of S-21, the Khmer Rouge killing centre in Phnom Penh. Under his directorship, he ordered the imprisonment, torture and murder of men, women and children accused of plotting against the Khmer Rouge regime. Based on Duch’s instructions, torture in the prison included electrical shocks, waterboarding, the removal of fingernails, suffocation and beatings. Approximately 20,000 people were murdered at this killing centre, and it was used as a model for other killing centres in Cambodia.
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia was initiated by the Cambodian Government in 1997 specifically to hear cases against the senior members of the Khmer Rouge, allegedly responsible for the worst crimes of the genocide in Cambodia which took place between 1975 to 1979.
