Kar Savuth: My Client Followed Verbal Orders and Had No Authority to Arrest Or Kill Anyone

Editorial

Stan Starygin


Shortly after his client's tranfer to the authority of the ECCC World News Australia (http://www.worldnewsaustralia.com.au/region.php?id=138833®ion=2) quoted Kang Kech Iev (Duch)'s Cambodian lawyer Kar Savuth as saying that his client was not guilty of the crimes he had most recenlty been charged with by the ECCC arguing that Duch was only following "verbal orders from the top" and "had no right to arrest or kill anyone".

It is not clear at this point whether by referring to the "verbal orders from the top" Kar Savuth is alluding to a possibility that the tribunal currently has no paper trail in its possession to link the top leaders of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) to the operation of Duch-supervised S-21.