Khmer Rouge prison chief handed 30 years in prison

PHNOM PENH: A UN-backed war crimes court on Monday sentenced a former Khmer Rouge prison chief to 30 years in prison for his role in Cambodia”s “Killing Fields” atrocities in the late 1970s.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to be convicted in an international tribunal over the deaths of up to two million people through starvation, overwork and execution at the hands of the regime.

The 67-year-old was initially given 35 years but the court reduced the jail sentence after ruling that he had been detained illegally for years before the UN-backed tribunal was established. Duch apologised during his trial in Phnom Penh for overseeing the murders of around 15,000 men, women and children at Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, but shocked the court in November by finally asking to be acquitted.