Former opposition leader Sam Rainsy walks to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in this file picture from 2014. - PPP
PHNOM PENH (The Phnom Penh Post/The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday (Dec 30) announced the verdicts in two high profile cases involving Sam Rainsy and former officials of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
Rainsy was found guilty of incitement to commit a felony and incitement of social chaos. He was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of eight million riel (US$2,000).
The court also ordered Rainsy to pay two billion riel in compensatory damages to the government for inciting social unrest.
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RFA
A court in Cambodia on Monday began the trials of five detained opposition activists and their party’s acting chief, drawing around 100 supporters who demanded that authorities drop charges human rights groups have dismissed as “politically motivated.”
Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) acting president Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile in Paris, was tried by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in absentia for “falsifying information” regarding the death of former National Police Commissioner-General Hok Lundy and “incitement” for calling on the public to default on microfinance loans amid the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sam Rainsy had tried to return on Nov. 9, 2019 to lead nonviolent protests against Prime Minister Hun Sen, urging Cambodian migrant workers abroad and members of the military to join him. However, his plan to enter Cambodia from Thailand was thwarted when he was refused permission to board a Thai Air