Former Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary requests bail

The 82-year-old is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for his alleged role in the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime during which up to 2 million Cambodians died.

 Sary's lawyer Ang Udom told the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia his client was too old and frail to be a flight risk or a risk to witnesses and appealed for his release on bail.

 Sary was pardoned by then-King Norodom Sihanouk of charges of genocide in 1996 but no mention was made of the charges that were eventually brought against him by the hybrid court to which he has pleaded not guilty.

 His wife Ieng Thirith as well as former head of state Khieu Samphan, movement leader Pol Pot's chief deputy Nuon Chea, and former chief of the Toul Sleng torture centre Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, are the other four former leaders in custody.

 Similar appeals by other defendants of the court have already failed, but Sary argues that he is in ill health and has received constant medical treatment since his arrest in November.

 Hearings are expected to get underway later this year.//dpa