Doctor says imprisoned Khmer Rouge chief OK

Doctor says imprisoned Khmer Rouge chief OK

PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Imprisoned Khmer Rouge military chief
Ta Mok is well and did not suffer a heart attack last week as his
lawyer reported on Monday, Ta Mok's doctor said.

Military doctor Tuot Nara said he had visited Ta Mok on Monday
afternoon and the 75-year-old former guerrilla chief was fine.

"It was not (a heart attack)," Tuot Nara told Reuters. "Last
week he had difficulty breathing, which is something that affects
elderly people."

"Now he is very well. I saw him this afternoon and he looked
very well," he said.

Ta Mok, known as "the butcher" for his efficiency in carrying
out purges during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge "killing fields"
regime, was captured on northern Cambodia's border with Thailand
in March last year.

He has been held in a military court detention facility in
Phnom Penh ever since.

On Monday, defense lawyer Benson Samay said in a statement his
75-year-old client -- a leading candidate for trial before a
proposed Cambodian-UN genocide tribunal -- suffered two heart
attacks and was in a serious condition.

"Ta Mok has survived two consecutive heart attacks during the
night of 17 August 2000, but a severe health condition still
persists," Benson Samay said, adding that a slight improvement
had been noticed.

The lawyer said by telephone the aging Ta Mok, who is being
held in Phnom Penh's military prison, may also have suffered a
stroke.

Military court investigating judge Ngin Sam An also denied
Benson Samay's report of a heart attack.

"I do not know what (Benson Samay's) client told him, but he
is not a doctor... Ta Mok is OK," Ngin Sam An said.

The one-legged Ta Mok was a top member of the Khmer Rouge
during the radical communist group's bloody rule.

He was later military chief and took over as top leader after
the April 1998 death of the notorious Pol Pot.

Ta Mok was initially charged under a 1994 law banning the
radical rebel group and later was also charged with genocide.

He is one of two top Khmer Rouge members in prison awaiting
trial.

A noted hardliner, Ta Mok is the most senior Khmer Rouge
leader now in custody awaiting trial.

He was the only one among the top leadership of the Communist
movement not to have been educated abroad and served in dictator
Pol Pot's inner cadre, before deposing him ahead of the former
supremo's death in the jungles in April 1998.

Draft plans hammered out between Cambodian government
negotiators and the United Nations to hold a joint trial of
surviving leaders are currently in limbo, awaiting debate in
parliament.

The other is Kang Khek Ieu, better known by his revolutionary
name "Duch", who headed the Khmer Rouge's secret police and was
chief of their notorious Tuol Sleng prison. He was arrested in
May 1999.

No dates have yet been set for their trials.
An estimated 1.7 million people died during the Khmer Rouge's
nearly four-year rule.