Prosecutors to seek life term for KRouge jailer

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Prosecutors at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court were set on Tuesday to appeal for a life term for former Khmer Rouge cadre Duch, who ran a feared jail where thousands died.

Duch, 68, was sentenced to 30 years in prison last July for war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people at the notorious torture prison Tuol Sleng in the late 1970s.

The jailer, real name Kaing Guek Eav, was the first former Khmer Rouge cadre to face an international tribunal and both the defence and prosecution are appealing against the punishment in three days of hearings at the court.

During his trial, Duch repeatedly apologised for overseeing mass murder at the detention centre also known as S-21 but shocked the court by asking to be acquitted in his closing statement in November 2009.

Prosecutors were expected to argue on Tuesday that his U-turn showed a lack of remorse and that the original judgment was too lenient.

They are hoping for a life term for Duch, to be commuted to 45 years on the grounds that he was detained illegally for years.

Prosecutors also want enslavement, imprisonment, torture, extermination, rape and other inhumane acts to be added to Duch's list of convictions.

This would ensure "there is a proper historical record of convictions to fully describe the respondents' crimes," co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told the Supreme Court Chamber.

The defence team claimed in their appeal on Monday that Duch should never have been put on trial because he falls outside the court's mandate to prosecute the regime's senior leaders and those most responsible for the crimes committed.

They argued that Duch was "just a minor secretary" following orders and he should therefore be released.

At his trial, Duch was originally given a 35-year jail sentence but this was reduced for the period of unlawful detention.

Given time already served, Duch could walk free in less than 19 years, much to the dismay of many victims of the brutal 1975-1979 regime.

A ruling on the appeals is expected in late June.

Led by ‘Brother Number One’ Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork and execution.

S-21, in Phnom Penh, was at the centre of the regime's security apparatus and thousands of inmates were taken from there for execution in a nearby orchard.

Duch has been detained since 1999, when he was found working as a Christian aid worker in the jungle. He was formally arrested by the tribunal in July 2007.

Four more of the regime's former members including ‘Brother Number Two’ Nuon Chea are due to go on trial later this year and Duch is expected to appear as a witness.