The American Spectator

A number of articles I saw yesterday, in preparing my piece for today’s main site, noted how prosecutors planned to appeal the lenient sentencing of Khmer Rouge jailer Kaing Guek Eav by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Today the BBC reports that Kaing, aka Comrade Duch, intends his own appeal:

His lawyer, Kar Savuth, told the AFP news agency: “We will appeal against the decision.”

A spokesman for the tribunal said the lawyer had indicated soon after the verdict was given that an appeal would be launched.

“He said he would have appealed a sentence of even one day,” said Reach Sambath.

A far cry from what he said last August:

I am humble before the Cambodian people, I accept all of these crimes and would like the Cambodian people to condemn me to the strictest level of punishment.”

“My life is just one life and cannot compare to those lives which were lost during the period,” he added.

Duch’s attitude changed last month when he fired his U.N. lawyer and he demanded his release. Nothing wrong with wanting to avoid incarceration, whether you’re guilty or innocent, but a contradiction’s a contradiction. And as I wrote today the “just following orders” defense doesn’t apply, for Duch had his own enthusiasm for the Khmer Rouge cause.