Khmer Rouge prison boss 'likely' to appeal sentence

Comrade Duch is unhappy? (Photo: Reuters)

27 July 2010
Radio New Zealand News

A Khmer Rouge prison boss found guilty of murder, torture and crimes against humanity is likely to appeal against his 35-year jail term.

A United Nations-backed tribunal on Monday jailed Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, in its first verdict on the Killing Fields revolution blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia three decades ago.

Duch has admitted overseeing the torture and deaths of up to 15,000 people in 1978. However, he will serve only 19 years after the court subtracted 16 years for time already served.

Former New Zealand governor-general Dame Silvia Cartwright was one of two international judges who, along with three Cambodian judges, decided Comrade Duch's fate.

Dame Silvia says one of Duch's lawyers argues that the Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia had no authority to conduct the trial.
Brother of NZ victim wants to meet Duch

New Zealander Rob Hamill says he wants to meet the man responsible for the prison where his brother was tortured and killed.

Kerry Hamill ended up in Duch's notorious Phnom Penh prison after the yacht he was sailing on with two friends strayed into Cambodian waters in 1978.

One of the men was shot immediately, but Mr Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were tortured and interrogated at the prison for two months before they died.

Rob Hamill says he is waiting to hear if it is possible to meet Duch.