Defense lawyers called on the court to acquit their clients during closing arguments Thursday, saying there was not enough evidence for the plotting charges against the former CNRP members who allegedly supported the failed return plan of exiled party leader Mu Sochua.
A slow trickle of former opposition CNRP members are making their way to the Candlelight Party ahead of the 2023 national elections, weeks after a five-year political ban was lifted.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court is trying 38 defendants — one of whom is on bail — linked to the disbanded Cambodia National Rescue Party for supporting the unsuccessful attempt by Mu Sochua to return to the country to face trial in 2021.
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld convictions against four human rights officials and an election body staffer — who previously worked at the same rights group — in a case related to a love scandal involving opposition leader Kem Sokha.
A Phnom Penh court judge presiding over a mass trial said she had matched a defendant’s voice to a phone tap just by listening to their testimony in court, a claim challenged by the former CNRP official.
A Supreme Court official said 118 former CNRP officials would regain their political rights Wednesday and do not need to file any paperwork to make official their return to politics.
Though a five-year political ban is set to end on Wednesday, former opposition officials will likely have little opportunity to make a difference in the upcoming election, the politicians as well as analysts say.
Defense lawyers demanded the judicial police identify where Facebook comments used as evidence were posted from, in order to show they were really made by defendants in an ongoing opposition mass trial.
A defense lawyer who was among 118 opposition officials banned from politics for five years is looking to join the Candlelight Party once the ban ends on November 16.
Former Kampong Speu commune chief Kim Tola was arrested trying to fly out of Phnom Penh for travel on Sunday over an incitement conviction from earlier this year.
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