Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni has pardoned convicted fraudster Prince Norodom Ranariddh (pictured), allowing him to return home from self-imposed exile abroad.
Ranariddh, now living in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, had been sentenced in absentia to 18 months in jail in March last year over a 3.6 million dollar illegal property sale.
The court ruled he improperly sold his former political party headquarters and used proceeds from the sale to purchase another property in his own name.
Hours after Hun Sen was formally re-elected the country's prime minister for another five-year-term, Sihamoni issued a royal pardon for his half-brother Ranariddh upon the request of the premier.
Sihamoni ordered Hun Sen to "successfully execute the royal decree."
In a letter to the king, read out on television, Ranariddh thanked Sihamoni for giving him "full freedom in order to join in the development of the nation."
Ranariddh also thanked Hun Sen for helping to arrange the royal pardon for him in another letter, and told the premier he would return to Cambodia on Sunday.
Ranariddh faced jail once before in 1998 but was spared by a royal pardon from his father, former king Norodom Sihanouk.
He had been sentenced to 35 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup with the Khmer Rouge a year earlier while he was co-prime minister with Hun Sen.
Ranariddh, now living in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, had been sentenced in absentia to 18 months in jail in March last year over a 3.6 million dollar illegal property sale.
The court ruled he improperly sold his former political party headquarters and used proceeds from the sale to purchase another property in his own name.
Hours after Hun Sen was formally re-elected the country's prime minister for another five-year-term, Sihamoni issued a royal pardon for his half-brother Ranariddh upon the request of the premier.
Sihamoni ordered Hun Sen to "successfully execute the royal decree."
In a letter to the king, read out on television, Ranariddh thanked Sihamoni for giving him "full freedom in order to join in the development of the nation."
Ranariddh also thanked Hun Sen for helping to arrange the royal pardon for him in another letter, and told the premier he would return to Cambodia on Sunday.
Ranariddh faced jail once before in 1998 but was spared by a royal pardon from his father, former king Norodom Sihanouk.
He had been sentenced to 35 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup with the Khmer Rouge a year earlier while he was co-prime minister with Hun Sen.
2 comments:
Now that the Prince has been pardon by the King, he can of course return home and be a politician again if not play politic. This [royal pardon] happended too many times already just hope that he would learn how to put national interest before himself and wish that his party would actively involve and perform well in NA.
Mediawatch,
All the people know that all the royal convictions were orchestrated by Hun Sen in a political witch hunt and victimisation. Prince Sirivudh's exile in 1995 on charges of plotting to assassinate Hun Sen was nothing than a political victimisation and witch hunt. The conviction of Ranariddh in 1997 of plotting a coup to overthrow a legitimate govt was a gross injustice. Ranariddh was an election winner and the coup was staged by Hun Sen, with over 100 hundreds of Ranariddh executed, and accused Ranariddh of staging a coup? No one believe it. This time, it is the same. Ranariddh had foolishly backed Hun Sen for the PM job too many times, '93, '98 and '03 but every time after he got the PM job, Hun Sen always treated Ranariddh like a piece of shit. The exile of Prince Ranariddh is the work of Hun Sen. Not the court or Nhiek Bunchhay's. Bunchhay is just a puppet of Hun Sen. But I would say that Ranariddh probably deserved it because he is a fool who never learned a lesson and always supported and joined Hun Sen at the end.
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