Cambodian opposition leader convicted in absentia

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AA) – A Phnom Penh court has tried and convicted Cambodia’s self-exiled opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, in a case brought against him late last year over a video that he shared on Facebook.

The defamation case was filed by National Assembly President Heng Samrin in November, after Samrin took exception to a post Rainsy shared on his Facebook page.

Although the video shows late King and then Prince Norodom Sihanouk talking about the Samrin-led regime that was installed by Vietnam after it overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979, the post Rainsy wrote to accompany it said that regime had used a tribunal to sentence Sihanouk to death on accusations that he had been a traitor.

Sihanouk had not been sentenced to death.

Rights group Licadho said Thursday that during the morning hearing, the prosecutor and lawyer representing Samrin “both argued that the caption Rainsy had written to accompany the video was exaggerated, defamatory and misleading.”

Rainsy, who is currently in the United States attending the Democratic National Convention, was not represented during the trial.

He did not return a request for comment Thursday, and Cambodia National Rescue Party spokesman Yim Sovann could not be reached.

Licadho observers said the judge took just 10 minutes to deliberate the merits of the prosecutor’s argument and “returned with a lengthy written judgment, finding Rainsy guilty of defamation under article 305 of the Criminal Code”.

Rainsy has been ordered to pay around $40,000 in fines and compensation to Samrin.

Rainsy was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in November last year, on the same day he was supposed to arrive back in Cambodia from a visit to South Korea.

That move stemmed from an old defamation case brought against him by then Foreign Minister Hor Namhong over claims Rainsy had made about Namhong being involved in the running of a Khmer Rouge camp.

Other cases have stacked up against Rainsy including another Facebook-related case around his sharing of a video that included a forged border treaty.