Former Khmer Rouge commander Chhouk Rin was released from Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital Tuesday morning after spending several days in a coma from which friends feared he would not awake.
The Phnom Penh Appeals Court has sentenced Chhouk Rin to life in prison for his connection to the killing of 13 Cambodians and the abduction and execution of three Western backpackers following a 1994 train ambush in Kampot province.
Sitting fully dressed in a chair in his hospital room on Tuesday morning, the former rebel appeared frail, his small, gaunt frame setting off his large hands.
His voice was quiet and feeble, and he told reporters he was too weak to answer many questions.
“Now I am better than before. I have a heart problem. I am very tired,” he said.
Then a young man, who Chhouk Rin referred to as his son, arrived and supported him while he walked slowly to a Jeep Cherokee with an RCAF license plate.
“I am staying in Phnom Penh awhile before going back” to Kep municipality’s Phnom Voar village, Chhouk Rin said before departing.
Doctors at Calmette declined to comment on Chhouk Rin’s condition, citing doctor-patient confidentiality.
Before Chhouk Rin checked into the hospital last week, friends said that he was suffering from a tetanus infection, the result of a battle wound from which shrapnel remains embedded in his body.
Linda McKinney, who has known Chhouk Rin for nine years and visited him in the hospital, said Tuesday it was “pretty amazing” that he did not die.
Chhouk Rin went into a coma at the hospital on Friday, and his condition appeared to have deteriorated by Saturday, McKinney said.
She said that she did not know the details of Chhouk Rin’s hospital stay, but said staff had been draining fluid from his abdomen.
“He was very sick. I don’t know how to say it strongly enough,” she said.
Chhouk Rin emerged from the coma on Sunday but looked as “weak as a kitten,” she added.
Ouch Noun, Chhouk Rin’s doctor in Kampot province, said Tuesday he was very happy his patient had recovered.
“Last week, we seemed to lose hope,” he said.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court acquitted Chhouk Rin in 2000 of charges stemming from the train attack, but the relatives of the three dead backpackers appealed the case.
The Appeals Court reversed the decision in 2002, handing down the life sentence. He was granted a retrial, but the court upheld its conviction in November.
Chhouk Rin has appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, but a trial date has not been set. He remains out of prison while he the case is being appealed.
Chhouk Rin maintains his innocence, saying he handed over the three Western prisoners to his Khmer Rouge superiors before defecting to the government.
He also argued that he should be protected from prosecution by a 1994 law that granted immunity to Khmer Rouge rebels who defected within six months of the law’s adoption.
