A former Khmer Rouge commander convicted of the 1994 murders of three Western backpackers but on the run since February was jailed on Wednesday, a day after his capture, officials said.
Chhouk Rin, 51, was sentenced in absentia in 2002 to a life term by Cambodia's top court after exhausting all avenues of appeal nine months ago, but authorities failed to capture him until Tuesday.
"Chhouk Rin is now in Prey Sar prison. He arrived this morning," interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told AFP, referring to the kingdom's largest jail notorious for its overcrowded and dismal conditions.
"Chhouk Rin's case is finished, so there is no need to send him anywhere else, just straight to prison," he had said earlier as the ex-guerrilla was being transported to the capital.
According to Ouch Nuon, a close confidant and ex-neighbour who provided medical care to Chhouk Rin for many years, he had returned from harvesting rice at a farm he fled to in north-western Anlong Veng, one of the Khmer Rouge's final strongholds, when authorities surrounded his small home.
The Supreme Court had found that Chhouk Rin ordered a group of his soldiers to ambush a train and snatch Australian David Wilson, 29, Briton Mark Slater, 28, and French national Jean-Michel Braquet, 27, as they travelled between Phnom Penh and the coastal city of Sihanoukville.
Thirteen Cambodians also died in the attack, and the Westerners were held for two months by Khmer Rouge rebels before ransom negotiations failed and they were killed, triggering an international outcry.
The ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge movement led by Pol Pot left up to two million people dead, and although they were ousted in 1979, elements of the Khmer Rouge fought the government until 1998.
The capture of Chhouk Rin, who has maintained his innocence, came a month after Prime Minister Hun Sen met with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris.
Asked whether Chirac had pressured the premier to make the arrest, Khieu Sopheak said the French leader had raised the issue but that authorities were searching for Chhouk Rin anyway.
"The request from him just coincided with our commitment," he said.
Chhouk Rin's wife Yem Sao, 37, complained that the government had violated the terms of his defection to their ranks in 1994.
"The government promised my husband that if he defected to them, the government would let him live freely. But now we cannot live freely and live peacefully," she told AFP.
She said she last saw her husband in August at their home in Phnom Voar or Vine Mountain, located just a few kilometres (miles) from where the attack on the train occurred in southern Kampot province, but was in phone contact.
Neighbour Ouch Nuon saw him in June but also received regular calls. He warned that his friend, who has HIV and tuberculosis, would not live long in jail.
"During a telephone conversation Chhouk Rin told me that he had decided that it was better he die in the jungle than in jail," he told AFP.
The pursuit of justice for the victims of the attack through the Cambodian courts was a long and traumatic wrangle in a country still recovering from its deep wounds from the Khmer Rouge.
Two other former Khmer Rouge, Nuon Paet and regional commander Sam Bith, are serving life prison sentences for the killings after exhausting their appeals.
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