PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Rocketing blood pressure and dizziness forced judges with Cambodia's genocide tribunal to stop questioning detained Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea Wednesday, his lawyer said.Attorney Son Arun said his client, who has a history of health problems, could only utter a few words in response to questions from judges with the UN-backed court, who halted the interview after about two hours.
"(Nuon Chea) is not well. When they questioned him heavily he became dizzy," Son Arun told AFP, adding that Nuon Chea's blood pressure was checked during the interview and found to be dangerously high.
Judges Wednesday quizzed Nuon Chea on his role in the Khmer Rouge's hierarchy, Son Arun said.
"He could only answer them with a few words and he could say no more... When the judges questioned him for a while he could not answer correctly and could hear almost nothing," he said, adding that questioning may continue in the afternoon.
"He did not want to say a lot because he said he could not hear clearly," Son Arun said, adding that the judges felt his client was simply being uncooperative.
Nuon Chea, 81, is the oldest of the Khmer Rouge's ageing leaders, all of whom are suffering a variety of ailments, making health a major concern for the court tasked with trying the communist regime's leaders.
The former top lieutenant to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, who was the regime's chief ideologue, was arrested last week and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On Tuesday, Nuon Chea's family demanded he be released on bail, saying they doubted the tribunal's ability to care for his health.
A tribunal to try the regime's top leaders got underway last year. Five suspects, including Nuon Chea and former regime prison chief Duch, are under investigation, with public trials expected in 2008.
By the time the communist Khmer Rouge regime fell in 1979 up to two million people had died of starvation, disease, overwork or were executed in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
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