Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Kem Sokha, the Cambodian opposition leader, has been sentenced to 27 years under house arrest in a treason case, ending a three-year trial drawn out by COVID-19 pandemic and delays to allow lawyers of the government to find new evidence of his alleged crimes.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge told the ex-president that he would be banned indefinitely from voting in elections and politics. He also cannot meet anyone outside his family.
Kem Sokha was arrested six years back
Kem Sokha was detained in September 2017 without an arrest warrant in a midnight raid on his house. Denied bail many times before finally being released under house arrest, the leading political figure was charged with conspiracy with a foreign power.
His party CNRP was dissolved and the Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government had made it a crime to associate with its name or depict the party leaders’ images. Without any effective and active opposition, Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party swept the board in national polls in 2018.
After Friday’s verdict was announced, the US ambassador to Cambodia W Patrick Murphy took to Twitter, saying that Washington was deeply troubled by the decision. Kem Sokha had continuously denied the charges against him, saying he was only trying to get power through the elections.
