Former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan has been admitted to hospital during his trial on Wednesday, making him the second leader facing trial to be taken ill and hospitalised this week.
81-year old Khieu Samphan, also known as Brother Number 2, joins 86-year old Nuon Chea, at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh. Former regime Foreign Minister Ieng Sary also stayed at the same hospital last year after he also fell ill during trial.
The trio are all on trial, facing charges of genocide and war crimes. However the health of the suspects, all of whom are over 80, threaten to cut the trial short. A fourth suspect, the sister-in-law of the regime’s former leader, Pol Pot, Ieng Thirith, had charges dropped against her last year after doctors ruled she was suffering from dementia.
The New York Times quoted Peter Maguire, author of “Facing Death in Cambodia,” as saying,
“The fact that the case has even made it this far is a minor miracle to those of us who were in Cambodia during the 1990s, when the defendants’ amnesties seemed secure,”
“The court’s reputation can be salvaged if they can complete the case against the senior Khmer Rouge leaders while they are still alive,” he wrote. The court would “end on a high note that even longtime critics like myself will concede.”
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