Nearly a week after he was rushed from the ECCC with high blood pressure, Khieu Samphan remained hospitalized Tuesday, court spokesman Reach Sambath said.

Sambath said Samphan's condition is not critical and doctors at Calmette Hospital will release him to tribunal custody once his checkup is complete.

The former DK head of state was taken to Calmette last Wednesday, the same day Ieng Thirith appealed her pre-trial detention before the ECCC. Media reported that Samphan became stressed while working on a book.

Samphan, like many of the eldery Khmer Rouge defendants, suffers from several chronic health conditions. Some worry he could pass away before facing trial.

 

"Cambodian people are afraid that [Khieu Samphan] will -- like Brother Number One Pol Pot and one-legged former KR military commander Ta Mok -- die without relating the secrets he knows of the mass killings during the KR regime," Licadho president Kek Galabru told the Mekong Times.