Lawyers for former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary have renewed their call for the ailing 82-year-old to be hospitalized, saying his health “has deteriorated markedly” since their January appeal against his detention.
In response to a similar request last month, the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s co-investigating judges appointed doctors to examine Ieng Sary but said that doctors and not judges would decide whether he could remain at the court’s detention facility.
However, in pleadings filed Thursday, lawyers Ang Udom and Michael Karnavas argued that the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber should order Ieng Sary, who has been taken to the hospital four times this year alone, to remain hospitalized for the duration of the judicial investigation instead of being placed under house arrest, which the defense originally sought in appealing his detention.
“[V]ery often the improvements in the condition of Mr Ieng Sary are only temporary and after being released from hospital and returning to the detention unit, he is obliged to return” to the hospital, the lawyers argued. Ieng Sary had left Calmette Hospital on March 7 and returned within 48 hours, they said.
Court spokesman Reach Sambath said Sunday that doctors caring for Ieng Sary were aware of the possible effects of transporting the defendant to and from the hospital.
“They would not do that if they knew it was a problem,” he said.
