A Cambodian court on Friday sentenced opposition leader Kem Sokha to 27 years in prison in a treason case that rights groups say is only intended to block his political future ahead of the election general next July.
“Kem Sokha (…) is sentenced to 27 years in prison for collusion with foreigners in Cambodia and elsewhere,” said judge Koy Sao of the Phnom Penh court.
A figure of the opposition and co-founder of the National Salvation Party of Cambodia (PSNC), now dissolved, he has always contested the charges.
After the verdict, Kem Sokha was immediately taken from the courtroom to his home, where he will be under house arrest and prohibited from meeting anyone except his family members.
Her home is now under police surveillance, according to a tweet from her daughter, Kem Monovithya.
As he was led away, he smiled and waved at the diplomats present in court, an AFP journalist noted.
He has one month to appeal the conviction and jail term, Ang Udom, one of his lawyers, told reporters.
The court also stripped him of the right to vote and barred him from running for political office.
“I cannot accept this judgment,” Kem Sokha supporter Chea Samuon told AFP outside the courtroom.
“It’s very unfair for him and for the people. He’s not guilty, it’s political pressure.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that Cambodia’s desire to “silence” Kem Sokha “is unfair and profoundly diminishes Cambodia’s status within the international community.”
“We call on the Cambodian authorities to ensure that their citizens can freely exercise their human rights, that they are encouraged and able to participate in building a truly democratic system,” he said.
US Ambassador to Cambodia W. Patrick Murphy, who was present in court, denounced the trial and sentence as a “miscarriage of justice”.
“The United States is deeply troubled by the sentencing of respected political leader Kem Sokha,” he told reporters.
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.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the government to quickly release Kem Sokha.
“It is very worrying that the Royal Government of Cambodia continues to suppress political opponents and independent media ahead of the July elections,” he said.
Kem Sokha, 69, was arrested in September 2017 during an overnight operation involving hundreds of security officers, accused of trying to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power since 1985.
Critics say Hun Sen – Asia’s longest-serving leader – rolled back democratic freedoms and used the courts to stifle dissent, jailing many activists and human rights defenders.
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, Hun Sen’s party won all the seats in Parliament, results hotly contested.
In the absence of visible opposition, the Cambodian leader, a former Khmer Rouge fighter who dissented from the movement, who rose through the ranks during the occupation of Cambodia by Vietnam, is heading at 70 for another landslide victory in the legislative elections of July.
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 Sohka’s trial illustrated the “frightening problem of state control over the judicial system in the country”, pointed out the executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, Chak Sopheap.
“The authoritarians have won” in Cambodia, Phil Robertson of the NGO Human Rights Watch told AFP. “Cambodian democracy is hitting rock bottom.”
“Sending Kem Sokha to prison is not only intended to destroy his political party, but also to crush any hope of holding genuine general elections in July.”
“The Cambodian judicial system has once again shown a staggering lack of independence,” said Ming Yu Hah, deputy regional director of Amnesty International.
Exiled opposition figure Sam Rainsy, who has lived in France since 2015 to avoid jail time over a number of convictions he says are politically motivated, said the trial was based on ‘fabricated accusations’.
For specialist Sebastian Strangio, author of “The Cambodia of Hun Sen”, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has sent a very strong message to the opposition: “anyone who poses serious problems to the CPP will be brought to heel” .
03/03/2023 22:18:54 – Phnom Penh (AFP) – © 2023 AFP