Source:
Associated PressPHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Incarceration at the Khmer Rouge's most notorious prison was tantamount to a death sentence since not even the movement's supreme leader had the right to release prisoners, the center's chief told a special tribunal Thursday.
Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, commanded the Phnom Penh prison, where as many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been tortured before being sent to their deaths. Only a handful survived.
Duch, 66, is being tried by a U.N.-assisted genocide tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and torture. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died under the 1975-79 radically communist Khmer Rouge regime from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions.
"When people were perceived as enemies and arrested and sent to S-21, no one was entitled to release them. Even Pol Pot, the most senior person in the Khmer Rouge, acknowledged that he had no right to release any people," Duch said.
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ETA: I am posting daily updates on Duch's trial, as this story is personal to me.