Cambodia’s Court of Appeal began hearing former opposition party leader Kem Sokha’s bid to overturn his 27-year sentence for treason on Tuesday.
One international human rights group is calling on Cambodian authorities to release the 70-year-old immediately, calling his sentence “baseless.”
Sam Rainsy, the exiled acting leader of Sokha’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), also called for the verdict to be quashed.
“There's no way forward for #Cambodia until Kem Sokha is freed and allowed his political rights,” he wrote on X.
Security was tight at the courthouse, with checkpoints outside and reporters barred from the building.
Kem Sokha was arrested in September, 2017, and charged with colluding with a foreign power.
After his arrest, he spent a year in a prison near the border with Vietnam.
He was transferred to house arrest in Phnom Penh in October 2018. More than a year later, the court eased some of the restrictions, allowing him to travel inside the country but banning him from participating in politics.
Sokha’s trial was delayed for more than a year due to restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. When he was finally sentenced in March 2023, he was placed under house arrest, barred from politics and banned from meeting with non-family members without the court’s permission.
Ahead of the appeal, Amnesty International demanded his release, saying the treason conviction showed the Cambodian authorities’ disregard for human rights and the rule of law.
“Anyone who dares to speak out against the government is at risk,” said Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for Research Montse Ferrer.
“Cambodian authorities must respect, protect, promote and fulfill the human rights of everyone in the country, including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and end the increasing restriction of civic space.”
Kem Sokha has always denied the charges, which led to his arrest a few months after his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) made large gains in local commune elections.
The charges against him relate partly to a video recorded in 2013 in which he discussed a strategy to win power with the help of U.S. experts. The United States Embassy has rejected any suggestion that Washington was trying to interfere in Cambodian politics.
Shortly after his 2017 arrest, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved and outlawed the CNRP, paving the way for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party to take all 125 National Assembly seats in the 2018 general election.
Then-Prime Minister Hun Sen used similar tactics in last July’s election, barring the main opposition Candlelight Party from fielding candidates, allowing his party to win 120 National Assembly seats.
A month before the 2023 election, Hun Sen refused to pardon Kem Sokha, saying he made the decision because foreigners were trying to interfere in Cambodia.
Hun Sen stepped down following his party’s election victory, his son Hun Manet becoming prime minister last August.
Earlier this month, Kem Sokha’s daughter Monovithya lashed out at Western nations such as France for meeting Cambodia’s new leader in the hope of improving relations, calling it “lazy and ineffective.”
Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
