ECCC Reparations

This blog is designed to serve as a repository of analyses, news reports and press releases related to the issue of RERAPATIONS within the framework of the Extraordinary Chambers in Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a.k.a. the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Illness Halts Questioning of Khmer Rouge leader: Lawyer

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Rocketing blood pressure and dizziness forced
judges with Cambodia's genocide tribunal to stop questioning detained
Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea Wednesday, his lawyer said.
Attorney Son Arun said his client, who has a history of health
problems, could only utter a few words in response to questions from
judges with the UN-backed court, who halted the interview after about
two hours.
"(Nuon Chea) is not well. When they questioned him heavily he became
dizzy," Son Arun told AFP, adding that Nuon Chea's blood pressure was
checked during the interview and found to be dangerously high.
Judges Wednesday quizzed Nuon Chea on his role in the Khmer Rouge's
hierarchy, Son Arun said.
"He could only answer them with a few words and he could say no
more... When the judges questioned him for a while he could not answer
correctly and could hear almost nothing," he said, adding that
questioning may continue in the afternoon.
"He did not want to say a lot because he said he could not hear
clearly," Son Arun said, adding that the judges felt his client was
simply being uncooperative.
Nuon Chea, 81, is the oldest of the Khmer Rouge's ageing leaders, all
of whom are suffering a variety of ailments, making health a major
concern for the court tasked with trying the communist regime's
leaders.
The former top lieutenant to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, Nuon Chea,
who was the regime's chief ideologue, was arrested last week and
charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On Tuesday, Nuon Chea's family demanded he be released on bail, saying
they doubted the tribunal's ability to care for his health.
A tribunal to try the regime's top leaders got underway last year.
Five suspects, including Nuon Chea and former regime prison chief
Duch, are under investigation, with public trials expected in 2008.
By the time the communist Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979 up to two
million people had died of starvation, disease, overwork or were
executed in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

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