Lawyers claim jail could kill former KRouge minister

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The former Khmer Rouge foreign minister is so ill that staying in jail could kill him, his lawyers said Thursday as they appealed for his release from detention by Cambodia's UN-backed genocide court.

Ieng Sary, 82, is one of five top regime cadres detained in connection with the Khmer Rouge's bloody rule over Cambodia from 1975-79, when up to two million people died from starvation, overwork or executions.

The joint Cambodia-UN tribunal was established two years ago, after nearly a decade of haggling, to bring to justice those responsible for one of the 20th century's worst atrocities.

Like most of the defendants, Ieng Sary appears frail. He has been hospitalised several times for a heart condition since he and his wife Thirith were arrested in November.

His lawyers told the court's panel of five judges that his health had become so poor that he should be released from jail and placed under house arrest until his trial.

"We submit that the detention conditions present an actual risk to Mr Ieng Sary's life," said defence layer Ang Udom.

Co-defence lawyer Michael Karnavas argued that Ieng Sary was too ill to pose a flight risk.

"How can he possibly flee if he's going to be in hiding? He's going to have to get medical attention," Karnavas said.

Prosecutors say the claims of ill health are a ploy to delay the trial. Ieng Sary's hearing Monday adjourned earlier than expected after a doctor said he was too ill to continue.

The four other defendants at the tribunal are mostly in the 70s and 80s, and worries for their health have clouded the court as critics worry they could die before trials are completed.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. The tribunal's first trial isn't scheduled to begin until later this year.

Ieng Sary's lawyers earlier argued for his outright release, saying that a royal pardon for his surrender to the government in 1996 should shield him from prosecution.

Ieng Sary was convicted of genocide in a 1979 trial in absentia conducted by the government installed after Vietnam occupied the country and ended the Khmer Rouge's bloody reign.

However, he was pardoned in 1996 upon surrendering to the Cambodian government.

Resolving how to reconcile a past amnesty with the international court's authority poses one of the key challenges facing the tribunal, which operates on a mixture of Cambodian and international law.