Rights group Licadho said yesterday that they are planning to make inquiries with the Interior Ministry after receiving reports about the deteriorating health of an imprisoned member of Denmark-based dissident group Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF).

Lat Lyheng was reported to have contracted a serious illness while being detained in Prey Sar prison, according to an email from self-exiled leader Sam Serey. He was among 10 KNLF members charged with treason last October after distributing leaflets in the capital calling on Cambodians to protest in front of the Vietnamese Embassy.

“I am concerned about Lyheng . . . He has a bloody cough,” said Serey, who lives in Denmark.

According to Licadho technical supervisor Am Sam Ath, their doctors are submitting requests over the next couple of days to meet the prisoner and check his condition.”

“I am very optimistic that they will allow us in and see the patient,” Sam Ath said. “If his health problem is serious, Licadho will request to get him out and send him to a private hospital.”

Kuy Bunsorn, director-general of the Interior Ministry’s General Department of Prisons, could not be reached.