Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Saturday, November 28, 2009 1:39 pm TWN, By Patrick Falby, AFP

Sponsors
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.

Khmer Rouge jail chief makes shock acquittal plea in trial

Duch made further apologies for his crimes in his statement on Friday.

Prosecutors said they were “surprised” by Duch's last-minute demand.

“The fact that he (Duch) entered a request for an acquittal reinforces in our mind that the remorse is limited,” international prosecutor Bill Smith told a hastily arranged press conference at the court.

“We the co-prosecutors have been taken by surprise. It's still in my mind unclear whether there was agreement or disagreement between the national and international counsel,” Smith said.

French defence lawyer Francois Roux said the last-minute change of heart by Duch and his local defence lawyer was a surprise to him too.

“It was completely unexpected, a moment of spontaneity. It was a complete, bad surprise,” Roux said.

But he said the move was also linked to Cambodian political interference in the trial, noting that Prime Minister Hun Sen has previously said that he hoped the tribunal would fail.

“This (Duch's appeal for release) calls into question Duch's plea of culpability, but also the competence of the court,” he said.

The court, set up in 2006 as a final chance to find justice for victims of the blood-soaked regime, has already been mired in controversy over alleged political interference and allegations about kickbacks in return for jobs.

Vann Nath, an artist who survived Tuol Sleng after he was put to work painting pictures of Pol Pot, said Duch's request “insults the dead”.

“He must not be released because he committed huge crimes. We totally depend on the court for justice,” he said.

Chum Mey, who survived because of his skills as a mechanic, added: “The court must not release Duch. Duch is known worldwide as a guilty person who killed thousands of people.”

Pol Pot died in 1998. The joint trial of four other more senior Khmer Rouge leaders is expected to start in 2011, while the court is considering whether to open cases against five other former Khmer Rouge cadres.

1|2