Cambodia's opposition leader Kem Sokha has appealed his 27-year prison sentence for treason, his lawyers said Thursday (March 30). "He appealed the verdict because it is unfair," Meng Sopheary, one of Kem Sokha's lawyers, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The opponent "refused to accept this unjust conviction which stripped him of many rights", including political rights, insisted Ang Udom, another of his advisers.
Kem Sokha, 69, sentenced in early March to 27 years in prison, was accused of conspiring with foreign agents to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. He was placed under house arrest, with the prohibition to meet anyone, except members of his family.
A political verdict
The co-founder of the now dissolved Cambodia National Salvation Party (PSNC) has always denied the accusations made against him. Human rights groups have denounced a political verdict, aiming to exclude him from the national poll to be held in July and in which candidate Hun Sen, in power for more than thirty-eight years.
The strongman of Cambodia, accused by international observers of having rolled back fundamental freedoms and of using justice to suppress any voice of protest, boasted Thursday of his longevity in office. At a graduation ceremony, he said:
“I first broke the record for youngest prime minister thirty-eight years ago. Now I have broken another record, that of the longest serving prime minister in the world. »
Two months after Kem Sokha was arrested in 2017, the Cambodian Supreme Court dissolved his party, the National Rescue Party of Cambodia (CNRP), then seen as a strong opponent to defeat Hun Sen's movement. Without strong opposition, the 2018 election was a landslide for the ruling party, which won all seats in the National Assembly.
