Kem Sokha sentenced to 27 years under house detention; banned from politics
Kem Sokha, former leader of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), greets the media at his home before going to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for the verdict in his trial in Phnom Penh on March 3. (Photo: AFP)
By Luke Hunt
The former president of the outlawed Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Kem Sokha, was found guilty of treason and attempting to mount a color revolution, by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and sentenced to 27 years under house arrest.
In handing down the sentence on March 3, Judge Koy Sao said Kem Sokha was also banned from contesting elections and voting indefinitely.
Security was tight outside the court with about 30 Kem Sokha supporters awaiting the verdict alongside a press corp of about 40 journalists and camera people as diplomats, including the United States ambassador, filed in.
Mass protests failed to materialize after the government alleged two CNRP activists were working as secret agents for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and were planning to “cause chaos” outside the court as the verdict was announced.
The pro-government Khmer Timesnamed the pair as Meach Sovannara, former CNRP information spokesman, and Mark Gibbel, chief executive officer of the Policy Research Institute, which it said was based in Long Beach, California.
Kem Sokha was expected to appeal the decision which came five years after his arrest and a three-year trial and was tied to a video he recorded with his supporters in Melbourne in 2013, in which he allegedly threatened to oust Hun Sen’s government with the backing of foreign powers.
"We were going to vote, not conduct a color revolution"
In court, Deputy Prosecutor Chhay Hong alleged Kem Sokha was “following orders from the US to overthrow the Cambodian government just like the way it was done in the former Yugoslavia.”
Judge Seng Leang had also asked if the Centre for Applied Non-violent Action and Strategies (Canvas) had trained 15 CNRP activists in Indonesia in August 2016 with “color revolutionary” strategies that had been used in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia.
Kem Sokha told the court he had not sent any CNRP members to Indonesia for training by Canvas and said he was “not involved and never learned those lessons” adding “we were going to vote, not conduct a color revolution”.
His defense attorney Ang Udom also claimed the homemade video, criticized as the only evidence offered by the prosecution, had been doctored.
The trial has attracted the attention of foreign diplomats and human rights activists who claim the 69-year-old former vice-president of the National Assembly was prosecuted for political reasons and have called for his immediate release.
At the 2013 national poll, the CNRP went tantalizingly close to winning the popular vote with 44 percent of the total votes and rejected the result claiming the ballot was rigged. Violent and sometimes deadly demonstrations followed with tens of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets.
"Rights groups have accused the government of using the courts to silence dissent"
The election result was repeated at local commune elections in June 2017. Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept. 3, 2017, and the CNRP was outlawed two months later.
That enabled Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) — which has ruled since a Vietnamese invasion ousted the Khmer Rouge from power in 1979 — to win every seat contested at elections the following year. The next general election is due in July.
He is one of many — including the Khmer Bible editor Theary Seng — to be rounded up, charged and jailed in recent years. Others — like former senior CNRP figures Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua — have been handed lengthy jail terms while living in exile.
Cambodia’s judicial system is ranked in second last place on the World Justice Project 2022 Rule of Law Index at 139 out of 140 countries. Cambodian authorities dispute that ranking but human rights groups have accused the government of using the courts to silence dissent.
In closing statements, prosecutors Ky Tech, Ly Chantola, Cheng Penghap and Sann Chuoy argued that Kem Sokha had reached a secret agreement with a foreign state — without saying which one — to enable hostilities between 1993 and 2017.
They asked the panel of judges for a serious punishment and have also indicated a further lawsuit would be launched in a civil court for damages.
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