At least 10 opposition activists have now “confessed” and been forgiven for having supported acting party leader Sam Rainsy’s planned return to the country on November 9, the Justice Ministry said on Tuesday.
Six Swedish parliamentarians urged Prime Minister Hun Sen in an open letter to allow acting opposition leader Sam Rainsy and other top party officials to return to Cambodia “without harassment or repercussions of any kind.”
The daughter of detained opposition party president Kem Sokha, who is also a spokesperson for his outlawed Cambodia National Rescue Party, called exiled party leader Sam Rainsy’s promise to return to Cambodia next month a mere “PR stunt.”
UPDATED 9:48 a.m. — The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has sentenced a former opposition official to one and a half years in prison for calling for a boycott of the 2018 election and criticizing the government in Facebook posts. Three other officials, including exiled acting opposition leader Sam Rainsy, were sentenced in absentia to one year and eight months’ imprisonment in the same case.
High turnout and the abundance of parties contesting last year’s national election showed it “went well” and democracy was “not moving backward,” Prime Minister Hun Sen said he told the Bulgarian president during a tour of Europe.
Members of the outlawed opposition CNRP who have fled the country said this week that they will return to Cambodia next month alongside leader Sam Rainsy, despite the growing number of people arrested in connection with their support for Rainsy’s promised homecoming.
On the second stop of his European tour, Prime Minister Hun Sen again asked his hosts for support in retaining trade preferences as the E.U. reviews its “Everything But Arms” deal with Cambodia over alleged violations of political and human rights.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said he hoped to be “treated fairly” by Europe, while Czech premier Andrej Babis emphasized that human rights and democracy were his nation’s foreign policy priority.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday sentenced opposition activist May Hongsreang to a year and a half in prison for incitement to commit a felony over Facebook posts criticizing government officials.
A former commune chief of the outlawed opposition has condemned “treasonous acts” by an exiled CNRP leader in an on-camera “confession” that opposition politicians say was coerced, two days after the ex-chief was charged for “plotting” against the government.
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