Duch Seeks an Acquittal and Immediate Release

  • by David Scheffer, Professor and Director of the Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law
  • — 27 Nov, 2009

The final day of the closing arguments in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch) before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was a combative and surprising end to this historic trial held three decades after the atrocity crimes of the Pol Pot era. On this day, Duch’s admitted guilt was transformed into a request for acquittal, and the expectation of his incarceration for the crimes committed at S-21 was repulsed with his demand to be released so that he might walk a free man again. The civil party victims and hundreds of Cambodians sitting in the public gallery witnessed an astonishing display of hubris and arrogance that may reveal itself as a cynically smart defense strategy some day, but appeared almost obscene as a direct assault on the entire purpose of international justice and the preservation of memory…

Read more: ctm_blog_11-27-2009

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