Kem Sokha’s lawyers walked out of his trial hearing before it finished on Thursday after the judge interrupted them during a heated argument over access to evidence, which ended in the judge postponing the proceedings for two weeks.
Opposition leader Kem Sokha was questioned in court on Wednesday about who initiated discussions to merge his former party with the Sam Rainsy Party, why the parties joined together to form the now-banned CNRP and whether foreigners were involved in its creation.
Lawyers for the government and opposition leader Kem Sokha on Thursday sparred in court over the veracity, origins and context of various pieces of evidence, requesting that some items be corrected or excluded from the trial.
Opposition leader Kem Sokha was questioned in court on Wednesday about what he meant when he said during a 2013 speech in the U.S. that opposition gains made “Cambodian people stand up.”
The reported expenses of on trial opposition leader Kem Sokha’s Human Rights Party fell below the plausible costs of the party’s activities, government lawyers claimed on Thursday, though they did not say what activities were supposedly unaccounted for.
Opposition leader Kem Sokha on Wednesday objected to the repeated questioning of his past activities, telling the court during his treason trial that he could not remember the details.
Banned opposition party leader Kem Sokha urged the court to question U.S. officials if the presiding judge doesn’t believe his stated relationship with foreign states.
A government lawyer called the defense teams’ evidence a “gift” to his case at the end of the third day of a treason trial against banned opposition leader Kem Sokha.
UPDATED 9:33 a.m. — U.N. representatives issued a statement on Friday calling the trial of Kem Sokha, the leader of the outlawed opposition, “tainted by irregularities,” and criticized his arrest without a warrant, arbitrary detention and the lack of public access to trial proceedings.
Kem Sokha argued in court on Thursday that his political and NGO activities adhered to democratic and human rights principles, and therefore would not be a crime under the charge of conspiring with a foreign power, according to his lawyers.
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