By ROBERT CARMICHAEL
DPA
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia The prosecution at the international war crimes court on Monday rejected as baseless the grounds for acquittal sought on appeal by Comrade Duch, the Khmer Rouge’s former security chief.
Duch headed the notorious torture and execution center known as S-21. The tribunal last year sentenced him to 35 years for his role in the deaths of at least 12,272 detainees from 1976 to 1979.
Earlier on Monday, lawyers for Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, said the U.N.-backed tribunal lacked jurisdiction over their client since he was not a senior Khmer Rouge cadre and had merely followed orders.
But prosecutor Chea Leang argued that the defense challenge to the court had come far too late and ought to have been made at the start of the trial in early 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment