Cambodian opponent Kem Sokha arrived Friday morning at the Phnom Penh court to deliver his verdict in a trial for treason, denounced as political, which could prevent him from running in the national election in July.
An opposition figure and co-founder of the now dissolved Cambodia National Salvation Party (PSNC), he faces up to 30 years in prison for charges he has always contested.
“He is holding on, and remains optimistic. He really wants to resume his political career,” his daughter Kem Monovithya told AFP.
“I hope he will be cleared to participate in the next elections”, scheduled for July 23, she continued.
Mr. Sokha greeted the cameras before climbing the stairs of the court, noted AFP journalists on the spot.
The US Ambassador to Cambodia, W. Patrick Murphy, was present in the courtroom.
Kem Sokha, 69, was arrested in September 2017, accused of trying to overthrow the government of Hun Sen, in power since 1985.
He had been imprisoned and then placed under house arrest. This measure was lifted in November 2019, subject to conditions.
His trial dragged on, partly due to coronavirus restrictions which caused hearings to be postponed for almost two years, until the resumption in January 2022.
A possible conviction would be part of the wave of repression initiated by the regime against dissenting voices, some of whom have had to flee the kingdom for fear of being arrested and prosecuted.
Last year, dozens of opponents, some linked to the PSNC, such as its former leader Sam Rainsy, who has lived in exile in France since 2015, were sentenced to prison terms in two mass trials denounced by the International community.
The PSNC had made a breakthrough in the 2013 elections, winning 55 of 123 seats, before being dissolved four years later by the country’s Supreme Court.
In the ballot that followed, in 2018, the party of Prime Minister Hun Sen (70) won all the seats in Parliament, results hotly contested.
With no visible opposition, the Cambodian leader, a former Khmer Rouge fighter who dissented from the movement, who rose through the ranks during Cambodia’s occupation by Vietnam, the oldest leader in Asia, is heading for another victory overwhelming in the July legislative elections.
The closure deemed arbitrary of one of the last independent media in the kingdom, Voice of Democracy, in mid-February, has revived concerns about the holding of free and fair elections.
Kem Sokha’s trial is “like a bone stuck in Hun Sen’s throat”, Sam Rainsy told AFP.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Kem Sokha in Phnom Penh in August, said he was “disappointed” by the time taken by the “politically motivated” legal proceedings.
For expert Bunna Vann, a conviction would amount to “strengthening the domination of the single party” of Hun Sen.
“It is a signal that any opposition party that challenges the Cambodian People’s Party will be easily dissolved,” he continued.
03/03/2023 03:18:44 – Phnom Penh (AFP) – © 2023 AFP