The Appeal Court has upheld a lower court’s decision to accept new evidence from the prosecution in Kem Sokha’s stalled treason trial, although a lawyer for the opposition leader on Thursday expressed doubt that the evidence would incriminate him.
The Appeal Court will hear arguments next week from Kem Sokha’s lawyers, who are opposing a decision by lower court judges to accept new evidence submitted by the prosecution in the opposition leader’s stalled treason trial.
The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia on Thursday raised concerns that prosecutors are introducing “fabricated conspiracy theories” about the U.S. into the ongoing trial of opposition leader Kem Sokha.
A Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge and prosecutor probed Kem Sokha on Wednesday about his political collaboration with CNRP co-founder Sam Rainsy, in light of what the court officials called Rainsy’s “violent stance.”
Judges on Wednesday accepted additional evidence submitted by prosecutors in the trial of Kem Sokha, against the wishes of defense lawyers who earlier had questioned why new evidence was needed two and half years after the opposition leader was arrested.
Lawyers for Kem Sokha and the government on Thursday debated whether new evidence introduced by prosecutors should be permissible, with the defense arguing that if additional evidence was still needed, there was not enough to find Sokha guilty.
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.
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.
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.
Local industry groups have asked the E.U. to postpone the partial withdrawal of Cambodia’s tariff-free access to the European bloc for a year to allow the garment sector time to recover from the ongoing pandemic-spurred economic crisis.
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