PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Khieu Samphan, who served as head of state in Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge regime, is ready to appear before a genocide tribunal on the communist group if summoned, his wife said Tuesday.

So Socheat repeated her 76-year-old husband's claim of innocence in the atrocities, saying he "had no power" and "no significant role" in the Khmer Rouge regime. An estimated 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge from starvation, illness, overwork and execution.

Khieu Samphan has chosen Jacques Verges, a French lawyer who has previously taken on terrorists and a former Nazi as clients, to represent him in the tribunal, she said by phone from her home in Pailin in northwestern Cambodia.

Khmer Rouge ideologist Nuon Chea and Kaing Guek Eav, also known as Duch, who headed the regime's S-21 torture center, are currently being detained by the tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.