Duch before and after
Comrade Duch or more commonly known as Kang Kek lew was the former head of the Toul Sleng prison, or S-21, the site where over 12,000 Cambodians including men, women and children were executed. Duch, was the first Khmer Rouge leaders that are tried at the Cambodian United Nation supported genocide court. Duch claimed that he was obeying orders from above, and that he was threatened that he would be killed if he did not follow orders from his superiors. That did not earn him any forgiveness from his nation and people, as the Toul Sleng prison was the symbol of evilness and the crime that was committed under the regime.
"I would like to express my regret and heartfelt sorrow"
Duch was very well educated, and he excelled in mathematics. When he graduated, he got his teaching diploma in Phnom Penh where he met many students from China and was interested into the Communist ideology. Duch later joined the Khmer Rouge where he became security chief. He claimed that S21 did not arrest anyone, but he was responsible to interrogate, force them to make up confessions and report them to the committee. To extract false confessions from prisoners, Duch came up with extremely brutal ways of torture like beating up by bamboo rods, electric shocked, toe nail ripped out with pliers, hung upside down and many more extreme deaths. Children were even thrown from the third floor.
In 2010, he was convicted of crimes against humanity and jailed for 35 years. Appeal court judges extended his sentence to life. He was the first person to be imprisoned and served justice among the Khmer Rouge’s leaders.