AFP,PHNOM PENH
Wednesday, Feb 06, 2008
Former Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary, one of five top cadres facing Cambodia's genocide tribunal, remained hospitalized yesterday after being rushed from prison the day before, court officials said.
The regime's 82-year-old former foreign minister, who is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, was hospitalized on Monday after he began urinating blood, said Ang Udom, his lawyer.
The emergency was just the latest in a series of health scares suffered by possible tribunal defendants -- all of whom are elderly and frail -- and again raised fears that death could come before the trials for those accused of of past atrocities.
"All five defendants are old. They have spent years living in the jungle," said Reach Sambath, spokesman for the UN-backed tribunal, adding that Ieng Sary's condition was improving but that he was still in hospital.
"The doctors are very serious about their health, especially Ieng Sary ... of the five, he is the biggest cause for concern," he said.
It was Ieng Sary's second time being hospitalized in as many weeks. He was brought in for medical attention late last month due to a chronic heart problem, Reach Sambath said earlier.
His lawyer has said that Ieng Sary's health has deteriorated since his arrest in November.
Tribunal judges have also been sometimes forced to halt interviews with another suspect, Nuon Chea, because of health concerns.
Up to 2 million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed during the 1975 to 1979 rule of the Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia.
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