UPDATED — Former Cambodia National Rescue Party vice president Mu Sochua and 35 others were convicted by a Phnom Penh court this morning for plotting in a case linked to the exiled opposition leader’s attempted return to the country in 2021.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Police investigations into plotting charges against former CNRP members, including Mu Sochua, relied mostly on their public Facebook posts and interviews with pro-opposition media Radio Free Asia.
Phnom Penh court prosecutors continued to question defendants in a fifth mass trial related to former CNRP vice president Mu Sochua’s attempt to return in 2021.
Facebook posts by senior CNRP leaders and secret phone taps formed the basis for investigations into the fifth mass trial against the political opposition, where the court is debating activities linked to Mu Sochua’s unsuccessful return in 2021.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court will this week try 37 CNRP leaders, former lawmakers, party activists and supporters for alleged plotting against the state, marking the fifth mass trial the court has initiated against members of the dissolved political opposition.
Prosecutors and judges in the Kem Sokha treason trial looked to link senior CNRP leadership to the violence during garment worker protests in 2014, though most of the time they linked Sam Rainsy or Mu Sochua to the violence, not Sokha.
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