Friday, June 06, 2008

Khieu Samphan released hospital, returns to court detention

PHNOM PENH, June 5 KYODO

After a two-week stay in hospital, ailing former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan was sent back to U.N.-Cambodia tribunal facilities, a tribunal official told Kyodo News on Thursday. Helen Jarvis, chief of public affairs of the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts in Cambodia , said he returned to the ECCC detention center at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
''His health condition allows him to return to the ECCC,'' she quoted doctors as saying. Khieu Maly, his daughter, confirmed her father was taken back to the ECCC on Thursday afternoon while she was together with her mother at the hospital.
On Wednesday, a senior doctor who is in charge of Khieu Samphan's health at Calmette Hospital told Kyodo News that Khieu Samphan's health has improved ''step by step.'' The 76-year-old was hospitalized after suffering high blood pressure on May 21. Khieu Samphan was nominal head of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the late 1970s and has been charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes by the ECCC.
He is one of the Khmer Rouge's five prime suspects who have been charged and detained at the ECCC. The other four are: Nuon Chea, better known as the Khmer Rouge's Brother No. 2; Kaing Khek Ieu, alias Duch, head of the Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Penh ; Ieng Sary, deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and his wife Ieng Thirith, education and social affairs minister. The Khmer Rouge is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians during their rule from 1975 to 1979.
KyodoJune 05, 2008

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