The Phnom Penh Post

Israeli attorney Nick Kaufman has raised few eyebrows in his homeland since accepting an appointment in August to serve as a consultant for the Duch defense team, the AP reports:

"Emotionally, it's hard for me to accept that an Israeli Jew would defend a mass murderer," said Noah Flug, a survivor of the Auschwitz camp and head of an umbrella group of Holocaust survivor organizations in Israel....

Kaufman still fights for victims: He is representing eight people who fled from Darfur to Israel in an International Criminal Court case against Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir.

But he also represents such defendants as Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana, who was arrested this month on 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

"What are you doing with all these friends?" Motti Kirshenbaum, a veteran Israeli interviewer, asked Kaufman on TV.

The British-born Kaufman says, however, that even the worst war criminals deserve a proper defense - "They are not my friends, they are my clients," he told Kirshenbaum.

Duch has appealed the 30-year sentence he received in July for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions; his case is set to go before the tribunal's Supreme Court Chamber early next year.

Duch at the tribunal last year with defense lawyers Francois Roux (left) and Kar Savuth (ECCC).

The New York Review of Books had a blog post last week on the ECCC by Stéphanie Giry, editor-at-large of Foreign Affairs. Giry writes about Case 001 and the extent to which Duch was able to exert his influence over the proceedings:

Duch's lawyers filed notice today that they will appeal the tribunal's verdict in Case 001, arguing that their client "does not fit into the category of persons under the jurisdiction of the ECCC". The appeal notice accuses the court of practicing "victors' justice" and failing "to demonstrate why it was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the Prosecution evidence on which it relied proved that the Accused fell under its personal jurisdiction". 

This language echoes the arguments made during closing arguments in November by defence attorney Kar Savuth, who said Duch could not be considered a senior leader when S-21 was just one among dozens of similar prisons in Democratic Kampuchea.

"Duch has been detained for 10 years," Kar Savuth said at the time. "Other chiefs of prisons have not been detained, so I think it is an appropriate time that the chamber release my client and allow him to go home."

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Nick Kaufman, a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, has been appointed as a consultant for Duch's defence team following last month's verdict. Kaufman says he's been impressed by Duch's expressions of remorse and is ready to move forward with the appeal process.

"I believe in the sincerity of his regret, after meeting him last week, and I feel that the legal errors in the sentence reassure me that representing him in the appeal is the right thing to do," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said there was substance to the defense's claim that Duch had been just a cog in the Khmer Rouge's killing machine, following the orders of his superiors.

A busy day today for prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as they gave notice that they will appeal the judgment handed down against Duch last month and filed their final submission for Case 002. As the Co-Investigating Judges had indicated earlier this year, Duch will not be indicted in Case 002. 

Click here to read the notice of appeal, which argues that the Trial Chamber gave "insufficient weight to the gravity of Duch's crimes" and weighed mitigating circumstances too heavily. You can read more about both the appeal and the final submission in tomorrow's Post.

Cambodia Tribunal Monitor has a post-verdict interview posted with international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley and deputy prosecutor William Smith in which they talk about the judgment and compare the ECCC to other international tribunals at which they've worked. CTM has also posted an interview with John Ciorciari, a senior legal adviser at DC-Cam, as well as video of the verdict itself.

CTM Interviews International Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley and Deputy International Co-Prosecutor William Smith - Part 1 from Cambodia Tribunal Monitor on Vimeo.

In the wake of Duch’s verdict, commentary has been pouring in about the appropriateness of the sentence and future of the tribunal itself. I believe much of the outrage surrounding the sentence underscores conflicting expectations regarding the tribunal’s mission: While it has a relatively limited prosecutorial mandate, the court has been tasked, in the minds of many observers and victims, with helping complete a more truthful narrative of the Khmer Rouge period and with fostering national reconciliation. Yet these are objectives that no court can truly attain given the gravity of the crimes committed.

As scholar Peter Maguire wrote in Wednesday’s International Herald Tribune, “the biggest problem facing the ECCC is living up to its own hype. Claims that such trials can lead to healing, closure, truth and reconciliation are speculative at best. How does one measure ‘healing, closure and reconciliation?’ While most Cambodians would like to see the Khmer Rouge leaders punished, they’ve grown used to seeing common thieves and their government’s political opponents suffer far worse punishment than that meted out to Duch.”

Yet, Duch is only one person – a relatively low-ranking Khmer Rouge cadre at that – and nothing done to him can make up for the thousands of lives lost. As television news director Huy Vannak told the New York Times, “even if we chop him up into two million pieces it will not bring our family members back.”

Today’s historic verdict for Kaing Guek Eav, also known as "Comrade Duch," will no doubt generate debate. A reduced sentence of 19 years, for a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, will anger many – especially those who wanted him to face the death penalty (which is illegal in Cambodia).

At the same time, it is true that Duch has cooperated with the court, probably does not present a threat to society if ever released and most likely, given his age, will end up serving a life sentence anyway. Moreover, as the Cambodian Center for Human Rights pointed out in reaction to the verdict, it was not unreasonable of the court to take into account the years Duch was illegally detained by the Cambodian military.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘all members of the human family’ have ‘equal and unalienable rights.’ This necessarily includes senior members of the Khmer Rouge, who are viewed by many as indefensible,” according to a CCHR press release. “It is for this reason that the CCHR welcomes the reduction in Duch’s sentence as the result of the  ‘violation [of his rights] occasioned by his illegal detention by the Cambodian Military Court between 10 May 1999 and 30 July 2007.’”

Journalists, academics and observers of all kinds are pouring into Phnom Penh as Monday's announcement of the verdict in Case 001 approaches. For a look of what exactly, from a logistical standpoint, one can expect from the proceedings on Monday, check out this article in today's Post. A couple of more previews with a little more colour to them:

- David Scheffer, managing editor of Cambodia Tribunal Monitor and former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, assesses the proceedings at the tribunal thus far and what they portend for Case 002. He also pushes back against the criticism that the results thus far have not been worth the expense ($78 million by the end of last year, with roughly $87 million more budgeted for 2010 and 2011):

One of the best online sources for those following the proceedings at the ECCC, cambodiatribunalmonitor.org, has announced new features that it plans to have in place in time for the July 26 verdict in Case 001. The site, which has recently added RSS and Twitter feeds, will have correspondents on hand to live-blog on the day of the verdict and to post video interviews. You can also log onto the site to find video archives of proceedings at the court thus far and read expert analysis. The site's managing editors are Youk Chhang, director of DC-Cam, and David Scheffer, a professor at the Northwestern University School of Law and the former US Ambassador at Large for war crimes issues.

The verdict against Duch is set to be announced on July 26 (photo: AFP).