Khmer-born American lawyer, Theary Seng, will never be tolerated, Hun Sen says
Cambodian-US human rights advocate, Theary Seng, dressed as Lady Liberty, is arrested by police after being found guilty of treason in her trial in front of the Phnom Penh municipal court on June 14, 2022. (Photo: AFP)
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has ruled out a pardon for a Khmer Bible editor currently serving a six year sentence for treason after she backed former opposition leader Sam Rainsy and the outlawed Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP).
Theary Seng, also a Khmer-born American lawyer, lost her appeal in Cambodia’s Supreme Court in October last year, when Judge Kong Srim claimed her release would affect public order.
The United States has urged the government to release her, but according to a dispatch from the government mouthpiece Fresh News, Hun Sen said he does not trust any foreigners who like to disturb other countries, or aim to overthrow the legitimate governments.
“If any individual receives intervention from foreigners, that individual will never be tolerated or pardoned, for instance, Seng Theary,” Hun Sen said on Saturday while meeting about 17,000 workers in southeast Kandal province.
She was one of more than 120 people charged in three mass trials that followed Sam Rainsy’s failed bid to return to Cambodia in late 2019 when he promised to oust Hun Sen.
However, that attempt was thwarted by airlines who refused to let him board and last week the CNRP leader in exile and his entourage were expelled from Malaysia for allegedly plotting “social chaos” ahead of a July 23 general election.
"We are living in a dictatorship"
The CNRP was outlawed in late 2017, enabling Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to win every seat contested at elections the following year.
CNRP supporters who survived the crackdown then re-emerged as the Candlelight Party (CLP), which won about 22 percent of the overall vote at commune elections last year and intended to contest next month’s national election.
However, the CLP was disqualified last month after the National Election Committee (NEC) ruled its registration forms were unacceptable because they did not include original documents regarding its formation. The CLP says those documents were lost during a police raid six years ago.
Following her conviction, Theary Seng was moved from a prison in Phnom Penh to another in Preah Vihear, in the remote north, after prison officers lodged complaints saying that she could incite other female prisoners.
“This regime will not let me go free,” she said ahead of the initial verdict last June. “It will be an unfair and unjust verdict, because I am innocent, the others charged with me are innocent. But we are living in a dictatorship.”
Others currently facing lengthy jail terms include former CNRP president Kem Sokha who is currently serving a 27-year sentence, also for treason. Sam Rainsy has been sentenced to life plus many decades in absentia on charges ranging from treason to incitement and defamation.
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