Cambodia opposition leader Kem Sokha sentenced to 27 years of house arrest

Singapore/ Phnom Penh: Five years after being arrested and jailed, accused of plotting to topple the Hun Sen regime with a US-sponsored colour revolution, Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been sentenced to 27 years under house arrest.

The long-awaited verdict in his trial, widely panned as politically motivated, was delivered in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday.

Kem Sokha arrives at court in Phnom Penh on Friday.Credit: AP

The former president of the now outlawed Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was accused of colluding with a foreign power in a bid to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled in the south-east Asian nation since 1985.

Finding him guilty of treason, Judge Koy Sao ordered Sokha, 69, to be confined to his home for 27 years and also banned him from any involvement in politics, voting and standing for election for life.

While on trial Sokha had met regularly with visiting dignitaries in Phnom Penh, such as Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong last August, but is he now also barred from seeing foreigners or anyone except family members.

His lawyer, Ang Udom, told reporters the sentence, which ends Sokha’s political career, was unacceptable.

“As a lawyer I will appeal,” he said. “We have strong evidence ... for it is unjust and not right.”

The hearing was attended by a host of foreign ambassadors including Patrick Murphy, the top US diplomat in Cambodia, who slammed the outcome.

“The United States is deeply troubled by the conviction of respected political leader Kem Sokha,” Murphy said.

“The multi-year process to silence Kem Sokha based on a fabricated conspiracy is a miscarriage of justice. Denying Kem Sokha and other political figures their freedom of expression, their freedom of association, undermines Cambodia’s constitution, international commitment and past progress to develop a pluralist and inclusive society.”

US ambassador Patrick Murphy speaks to reporters outside the court in Phnom Penh on Friday.Credit: Nara Lon

Australian officials were also at the court and in a statement released by Australia’s embassy in Phnom Penh said “we are deeply disappointed by today’s decision”.

“Australia has consistently called for a fair and transparent resolution in the case,” the statement said.

“Australia will continue its dialogue with Cambodia to encourage political space for genuinely contested elections and to support human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”

Human Rights Watch condemned the court’s finding and sentence, saying: “Cambodian authorities should quash this politically motivated conviction and immediately and unconditionally release him”.

Sokha was arrested in a midnight raid by about 100 heavily armed officers in 2017 in the lead-up to an election in which his CNRP posed a genuine threat of defeating the all-powerful Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

A videotaped speech Sokha gave to members of the Cambodian community in Melbourne in 2013, in which he talked of getting advice from US pro-democracy groups, was presented publicly by Hun Sen at the time as proof of his plans to overthrow the regime with American backing.

Sokha denied the charges but he was tossed in solitary confinement in a prison on the Vietnamese border for a year, then placed under house arrest for another 12 months and forbidden to act in politics.

In them meantime, the CNRP was dissolved, triggering a crackdown in which hundreds of opposition figures were jailed for treason and sentenced in absentia after fleeing abroad.

With his main rival wiped out, Hun Sen’s party went on to win all 125 seats in parliament.

Remnants of the CNRP have re-emerged as the Candlelight Party in the lead-up to the next election in July and several of its leaders have also come under legal assault as the polls near.

Among them are party vice-president and Cambodian-Australian Son Chhay, who was charged with criminal defamation for saying there was vote buying in last year’s nationwide commune elections.

Chhay was found guilty and ordered to pay $US1 million ($1.48 million) to the CPP. Unable to stump up the money, he will be stripped of his houses in Phnom Penh and flat in Siem Reap after losing a final appeal in the Supreme Court last week.

- with AP, Reuters

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