In this April 23, 2008 file photo, Khieu Samphan, a former Khmer Rouge head of state, is seen during a hearing at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A lawyer for Khieu Samphan says the 76-year-old is in serious condition at a hospital. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The Khmer Rouge’s 76-year-old former head of state, who is awaiting trial on war crimes charges, has suffered an apparent stroke and can barely speak, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Khieu Samphan was rushed from his detention cell to a hospital on May 21 with high blood pressure. Since then, his condition has worsened, said attorney Say Bory, who is defending him at the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal scheduled to start later this year.

The lawyer said he believed Khieu Samphan had suffered his second stroke following one in November, though doctors have not issued a diagnosis.

"The left side of his body is nearly deadened," Say Bory told The Associated Press.

The tribunal’s spokesmen and Khieu Samphan’s doctors could not immediately be reached for comment.

The long-delayed tribunal is seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge when it ruled Cambodia from 1975-79. The regime is blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people who died of starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

Khieu Samphan is among five suspects facing trial for their alleged roles in the regime’s brutality. He faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

All five defendants are aging and infirm. Many fear the aging suspects might die before they ever see a courtroom.

However, a spokesman for the U.N.-backed genocide tribunal where Khieu Samphan is scheduled to be tried later this year said his condition was not critical.

Khieu Samphan was rushed from his detention cell to a hospital on May 21 with high blood pressure. Since then his condition has worsened, said attorney Say Bory, who is defending him at the tribunal.

The lawyer said he believed Khieu Samphan had suffered a second stroke following one in November, though doctors have not issued a diagnosis.

"The left side of his body is nearly deadened," Say Bory told The Associated Press. "He can speak but his words are unclear. His tongue appears stiff. The left eyelid has also slumped over his eye."

So Socheat, Khieu Samphan’s wife, said she visited her husband Wednesday morning.

"His condition has become a little serious during the past few days. He can speak but not so clearly," she said by phone, adding he cannot get up from bed unassisted and can move his left arm and leg only slightly.

But tribunal spokesman Peter Foster said Khieu Samphan "is not in critical condition."

He declined to elaborate on Khieu Samphan’s diagnosis, saying only the patient had a "blood pressure issue."

Foster said he checked Wednesday with the tribunal’s judges, to whom doctors regularly report about Khieu Samphan’s condition.

"They indicated that his status has not changed since he was brought in (last month). We’re giving him all the tests and monitoring that we can," Foster said.

The long-delayed tribunal is seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge when it ruled Cambodia in 1975-79. The regime is blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people who died of starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

Khieu Samphan is among five suspects facing trial for their alleged roles in the regime’s brutality. He faces charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

All five defendants are aging and infirm. Many fear they might die before seeing a courtroom.

Say Bory said if Khieu Samphan’s condition continues, "it could affect" his case at the tribunal.

"Let’s hope everything will be fine," the lawyer said.

For years wildlife poacher Lean Kha had prowled the war-ravaged forests of Mondulkiri Province in eastern Cambodia looking for meat. A former teenage soldier for the Khmer Rouge political party, he estimates that he killed a thousand animals, including ten tigers, after the fall of the brutal Pol Pot regime in 1979.

Once dubbed the "Serengeti of Asia," almost all of Mondulkiri’s wildlife was wiped out by poachers during decades of conflict, which began with the war in neighboring Vietnam. 

Now, with Cambodia finally at peace, small but growing populations of animals—including Indochinese tigers, Asian elephants, and critically endangered species such as the giant ibis—are returning to one of Southeast Asia’s last remaining dry forests.

And Kha, now 45 years old, is helping to protect them as a head ranger supported by the international conservation group WWF.

"At the time I was ignorant and did not think there was a problem when I shot those tigers," he said, sitting at the forest headquarters in Mereuch as the Srepok River rushed behind him.

"Now I know we need to protect these animals for our children and grandchildren."

Coming Back Home

Humans cannot live inside the protected Mondulkiri Protected Forest reserve. A visitor can walk for miles without seeing any sign of humans, an unusual experience in otherwise densely populated Cambodia.

And with the region’s searing summer temperatures and open, shadeless terrain, it’s also usually hard to spot wildlife during the day.

But camera traps that take pictures at night show a different story.

A few years ago park rangers caught their first Indochinese tiger on camera. In 2007 a camera trap produced a picture of a female leopard and her cub.