Defense lawyers for nine senior opposition leaders gave conflicting closing statements on Tuesday, with a Bar Association-appointed lawyer requesting a minimum sentence — due to defendants’ age and inability to carry out their plans — as if they had pleaded guilty.
Senior government officials and journalists have been put at the front of the line for Covid-19 vaccinations starting Wednesday at four state hospitals, with the Health Ministry saying some with preexisting health conditions should not be vaccinated.
Defense Minister Tea Banh had already received his Covid-19 vaccine jab ahead of the planned rollout of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm shots next week when Prime Minister Hun Sen backed out Friday evening, saying he was advised he was too old.
Tapped private phone conversations were debated in court on Thursday as evidence of former opposition party members organizing a plan to topple the government, in the latest hearing in a series of ongoing trials against the outlawed CNRP.
Another tense hearing in the trial of prominent unionist Rong Chhun saw two supporters, who are also defendants, arguing they are merely a market vendor and tuk-tuk driver and not political activists despite participating in protests.
Preah Sihanouk provincial authorities ordered a coal ash plant in Stung Hav district to close in two weeks after nearby residents frequently complained of struggling to breathe amid the potentially poisonous dust, officials said.
Prosecutors on Friday showed statements, recorded speeches and social media posts from senior opposition leaders — including comments made during a meeting in Lowell, Massachusetts in 2019 — as evidence that nine defendants charged with attacking the government had planned a coup.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court judges on Thursday grilled opposition defendants in ongoing mass trials over the meaning of their social media posts, including how they defined the words “liberate,” “dictator,” “struggle” and “democracy.”
Six case files against 153 CNRP defendants, split into four trials, make up a web of ongoing prosecutions against the outlawed opposition’s senior leaders and grassroots supporters.
Former opposition leader Kem Sokha’s trial for treason, now suspended for 10 months, should be resumed and further delays avoided, his lawyers said in an appeal to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
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