Phnom Penh - The attorney for former senior Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea said Tuesday that he was looking at ways to negotiate bail for his client as other prime candidates for indictment took a wait-and-see attitude to their fate. Lawyer Son Arun said he had not yet proceeded with a bail application on behalf of the 82-year-old, known as Brother Number 2 in the Khmer Rouge but he was studying options. Nuon Chea faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes before a UN-Cambodian tribunal.
Arguably the most senior surviving leader of the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 Democratic Kampuchea regime, under which up to 2 million Cambodians died, Nuon Chea was arrested last week at his Pailin home on the Thai border.
The investigating judges of the UN-Cambodia Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia had recommended he remain in detention for at least a year because they believed there was enough evidence to indicate he could pose a threat to witnesses.
Lin Na, a close aide to Nuon Chea, said Nuon Chea had not requested bail and the decision was entirely with his lawyer.
"Nuon Chea did not initiate this request," he said. "At the moment, we are more preoccupied with the issue of visits from his wife and family."
Nuon Chea's wife has fretted publicly that the jail cannot properly accommodate his dietary requirements without her involvement.
The tribunal's newly built prison, which Nuon Chea currently shares only with former S-21 torture centre commandant Kang Keng Iev, alias Duch, is equipped with around-the-clock medical staff, television, air conditioning and other luxuries, court spokesmen said.
Meanwhile, other candidates for trial were mum on the likelihood that they would see a courtroom. Former Democratic Kampuchea head of state Khieu Samphan, who has been touted by many advocates as a natural candidate because of his seniority, declined comment.
"I apologize profusely," Samphan said by telephone. "I am very sorry, but you understand that it is better for me not to comment at present."
Ieng Vuth, deputy governor of Pailin, who faces the possibility that both his parents might face trial, also declined comment although he denied rumours they were overseas.
Vuth is the son of Ieng Sary, former Democratic Kampuchea deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and Khieu Thirith, a senior regime cadre and sister-in-law of the movement's leader, Pol Pot, who died at home in 1998.
"I applaud the decision of the Cambodian government to arrest Nuon Chea," Vuth said. "However, I reserve comment on the issue of my parents."
Hearings were expected to get under way in the long-awaited process next year. Tribunal prosecutors have said they are considering five prime candidates for trial but have not named the remaining defendants.
