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Cambodian opposition leader gets 27 years on treason charge

Published:Friday | March 3, 2023 | 10:26 AM
Former President of Cambodia National Rescue Party, Kem Sokha, greets from his car in front of his house in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, March 3, 2023. Cambodia’s beleaguered pro-democracy forces face another day of reckoning Friday, as the country’s most prominent opposition politician not in exile is scheduled to hear the verdict in his trial for treason.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A court in Cambodia convicted opposition leader Kem Sokha of treason on Friday and sentenced him to 27 years of house arrest, the latest blow in a campaign by the government to silence its critics or drive them out of the country.

The ruling against the country's most prominent opposition politician not in exile, widely condemned by rights groups and foreign governments, comes just four months ahead of a general election.

Kem Sokha's September 2017 arrest marked the beginning of a fierce campaign by Prime Minister Hun Sen's government to use the courts — widely considered to be under its influence — in a crackdown on dissent.

Since then, most other top government critics have fled Cambodia to escape what were generally seen as politically inspired prosecutions.

Kem Sokha's Cambodia National Rescue Party was seen as an electoral threat to Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2017, and his arrest came about 10 months before the country's last general election.

The Supreme Court dissolved the party soon after and its members were expelled from Parliament.

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