Two former CNRP lawmakers on Thursday announced a new political party, the Cambodia Nation Love Party, prompting accusations that they were acting in the ruling party’s interests.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday repeated a warning that Cambodia’s political opposition will be extinguished if the E.U. suspends duty-free trade, because the bloc will no longer have enough sway in the country to protect the party.
The E.U. is asking too much — it’s pushing the government to break the country’s laws — so Cambodia will merely update the bloc about the easing of restrictions for on trial opposition leader Kem Sokha and other concessions, the governmental Human Rights Committee said this week.
The U.S. government on Monday sanctioned a senior Cambodian official and a timber tycoon, both close allies of Prime Minister Hun Sen, for alleged corruption, a move that Cambodia branded an “ambush” that threatened bilateral relations.
Kem Sokha, leader of the outlawed main opposition party, will stand trial for alleged treason in January — 28 months after his arrest — the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said on Monday, amid heightened pressure on Cambodia from the E.U. and U.S.
News media should dare to speak the truth — especially against the “fake news” spread by “the outlawed rebel group and opportunists with foreigners behind them,” Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a letter to the Cambodian Editor Forum.
A lawyer for opposition leader Kem Sokha on Wednesday said no foreigner had been questioned during the more than two-year court investigation into allegations that Sokha conspired with a foreign power against the government.
The treason case against opposition leader Kem Sokha is headed to trial, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced on Monday, a decision his lawyer said was regrettable.
Cambodia and the U.S. have been through “ups and downs” together, but their bonds of friendship can still be renewed, Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote in a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Asia Pacific Summit, convened at Hun Sen’s Phnom Penh Peace Palace on Tuesday, saw the prime minister boast of the country’s rule of law and pluralistic democracy, and receive a good governance and leadership award.
VOD is an independent media outlet producing radio programs and disseminating information to the public via the Internet.
© 2019 VOD. All Rights Reserved.
