ADHOC activist charged after complaint from prime minister’s father
Son Chhay, vice president of Candlelight party, speaks to media representatives in front of Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Oct. 7, 2022. A prominent Cambodian opposition politician — who also has Australian citizenship — he was convicted of defamation for criticizing the country’s local elections in which strongman Hun Sen’s party won a landslide victory. (Photo by AFP)
Lawyers for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) have targeted a civil rights activist and a leader of an opposition party for potential litigation amid further arrests ahead of Feb. 25 Senate elections.
Three CPP lawyers have filed a complaint in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against Soeng Senkaruna, vice president of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, more commonly known as ADHOC, according to the government mouthpiece Fresh News.
Fresh News did not provide additional news, however, former prime minister Hun Sen recently posted on Facebook that there would be no tolerance against those who attacked the CPP while singling out Soeng Senkaruna.
“In this publication, there is also a speech by Soeng Senkaruna. I would like to ask the party’s lawyer to study the law to see if there is a legal basis to bring an action against him,” the former prime minister, who transferred power to his son Hun Manet in August, wrote.
A Cambodia Daily story quoted Soeng Senkaruna as saying Candlelight Party Vice President Son Chhay could not afford to pay US$1 million damages awarded by the courts and that political disputes should be resolved politically and not through the courts.
He apparently also said the CPP is a “party with a lot of financial resources,” therefore the party should tolerate Son Chhay while noting the CPP has “always used the courts as a barrier to oppress its opposition political partners.”
Meanwhile, CPP lawyers have warned that separate comments made by Son Chhay were politically motivated and undermined the CPP’s legal rights while damaging the Cambodian judiciary.
They were referring to an article also published by The Cambodia Daily — a newspaper that was shuttered in 2016 but still published online from abroad — regarding a Supreme Court ruling and an order forcing him to pay compensation to the CPP for public defamation.
Son Chhay, an Australian Khmer, intends to sell his house for more than $1 million to compensate the ruling party for comments he made after the commune election results were announced in 2022.
“Chhay’s interview is an interpretation that is politically motivated, has no legal basis and damages the judiciary. It has also affected the legal rights of the CPP as a civil party,” the CPP’s lawyers said in a statement, translated by the Khmer Times.
The Candlelight Party was disqualified from contesting the national ballot held last July. Senate elections will complete Cambodia’s five-year election cycle with the CPP expected to retain almost absolute control of the upper house.
This year, so far, four senior members of the Candlelight Party have been detained and charged with allegedly forging and using forged documents in Phnom Penh.
Another three Cambodian refugees were detained in Thailand ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Hun Manet, slated to begin Feb. 7, prompting Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, to call for their immediate release.
He also urged Thai authorities to cease the crackdown on Cambodian human rights and democracy activists who fled to Thailand, saying “Hun Manet is proving to be the same kind of human rights abusing dictator that his father was.”
Human rights groups say there are about 60 Cambodian political prisoners behind bars, including the Khmer Bible editor Theary Seng, former opposition leader Kem Sokha, whose appeal against a 27-year conviction is currently being considered, and prominent trade unionist Chhim Sithar.
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