Khmer Rouge minister claims ill health in trial

THE former Khmer Rouge foreign minister is so ill that staying in jail could kill him, his lawyers said yesterday as they argued for his release from detention at Cambodia’s UN genocide court.

Ieng Sary, 82, is one of five top regime cadres charged in connection with the Khmer Rouge’s bloody rule over Cambodia from 1975-79, when two million people died from starvation, overwork or execution.

The joint Cambodia-UN tribunal was established two years ago, after nearly a decade of haggling, to bring to justice those responsible for one of the 20th century’s worst atrocities.