Court Finds Khmer Rouge Officer Guilty of War Crimes

Posted on Jul 26, 2010

AP / Heng Sinith

“Duch” on the stand: Kaing Guek Eav appears at a hearing in Phnom Penh in November 2007.

He was involved in the torture and killing of more than a million people over the course of four years, but key Khmer Rouge operative Kaing Guek Eav, aka “Duch,” got off easy as he was sentenced by a U.N.-affiliated court Monday.  —KA

The New York Times:

A United Nations-backed court found the commandant of the central Khmer Rouge prison and torture house guilty on Monday of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sent him back to prison for a total of 19 years.

The commandant, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was the first major Khmer Rouge figure convicted in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979.

Efficient and ruthless, Duch, 67, oversaw the torture and execution of at least 14,000 prisoners, and for many people here, the sentence seemed shockingly light.

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