Sam Rainsy (on the phone) uprooted border post no. 185 in Chantrea district in Svay Rieng province on 25th October, 2009.By: The Associated Press
Posted: 03/1/2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia's top court has rejected an appeal by the country's exiled opposition leader, who was sentenced to two years in jail for uprooting border markers with Vietnam.
Sam Rainsy, who is living in exile in Paris, was convicted in January 2010 for leading a political protest to pull up the border markers to garner public support and boost his claim that Vietnam is encroaching on Cambodian territory.
Judge Khim Pon rejected his appeal Tuesday, saying the verdict reached earlier by a lower court was valid.
Rainsy was also sentenced separately last year to 10 years in prison for spreading false information about the border dispute.
Critics say the issue is an example of the intimidation of opponents by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
-------------------------------
Cambodia opposition leader loses final appeal
PHNOM PENH, Tuesday 1 March 2011 (AFP) - Cambodia's exiled opposition leader on Tuesday lost a final appeal against a two-year jail term imposed in absentia -- a sentence his lawyer denounced as politically motivated.
Cambodia's Supreme Court upheld Sam Rainsy's conviction early last year for inciting racial discrimination and intentionally damaging wooden posts denoting the boundary with Vietnam in an incident in October 2009.
"The decision by the Supreme Court is not fair and it is not justice for my client. I always tell the court that this is a politically-motivated case, not a penal case," Sam Rainsy's lawyer Choung Chou Ngy told AFP.
"I have not yet consulted with my client about our next step," he added.
The outspoken opposition politician, who lives in France, had already lost his first appeal against the sentence.
He now faces a total of 12 years in prison if he returns to Cambodia, after a court late last year also sentenced him to 10 years in jail for publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam in a separate case.
The Sam Rainsy party and rights groups have in the past said the convictions were an attempt to keep Sam Rainsy from taking part in Cambodia's national election in 2013.
He is the main rival to Prime Minister Hun Sen, 59, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985 and has vowed to remain in power until he is 90 years old.
Sam Rainsy has repeatedly accused Vietnam of encroaching on Cambodian territory.
No formal map has ever been agreed between the two countries.
The neighbouring nations officially began demarcating their 1,270-kilometre (790-mile) border in September 2006 after decades of territorial disputes stemming from French colonial times.
Hun Sen's government has for its part been embroiled in a bitter border dispute with Thailand which has claimed lives on both sides.
------------------------------------
Cambodia's highest court rejects appeal by exiled opposition leader
Mar 1, 2011,
Phnom Penh - Cambodia's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a two-year jail sentence against exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy for tampering with demarcation posts on the border with Vietnam.
The ruling confirmed the judgement of a lower court last year, which convicted Sam Rainsy of racial incitement and damaging public property after he uprooted several border markers.
Sam Rainsy's lawyer, Choung Chou Ngy, condemned Tuesday's ruling.
'It is not fair - I think this is a political case, not a penal case,' he told the German Press Agency dpa.
Sam Rainsy currently lives in exile in France.
Mu Sochua, a prominent parliamentarian with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), said Tuesday the ruling was predictable since it had come from a judicial system 'totally shaped to silence the opposition.'
'We continue to condemn the form and quality of justice in Cambodia, because the courts are used as a political tool against Mr Sam Rainsy as well as other activists who are not in favour of the policies of the government,' she said.
Mu Sochua, who lost a defamation case against Prime Minister Hun Sen last year, has yet to have her parliamentary immunity restored.
The SRP has charged that the land rights of Cambodian farmers living near the Vietnam border were not being respected in the ongoing process to demarcate the 1,270-kilometre border. The process is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
The incident riled Hanoi, which is a close ally of Hun Sen's government. Vietnam has significant interests in agribusiness, aviation, telecommunications and banking in Cambodia.
The judiciary has long been criticized as being a pawn of the ruling party.
Last June, the United Nations human rights envoy, Surya Subedi, said some judges were not interested in upholding the law. The courts faced 'tremendous challenges in delivering justice for the people of the country, especially the poor and marginalized,' he said.
Posted: 03/1/2011
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia's top court has rejected an appeal by the country's exiled opposition leader, who was sentenced to two years in jail for uprooting border markers with Vietnam.
Sam Rainsy, who is living in exile in Paris, was convicted in January 2010 for leading a political protest to pull up the border markers to garner public support and boost his claim that Vietnam is encroaching on Cambodian territory.
Judge Khim Pon rejected his appeal Tuesday, saying the verdict reached earlier by a lower court was valid.
Rainsy was also sentenced separately last year to 10 years in prison for spreading false information about the border dispute.
Critics say the issue is an example of the intimidation of opponents by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
-------------------------------
Cambodia opposition leader loses final appeal
PHNOM PENH, Tuesday 1 March 2011 (AFP) - Cambodia's exiled opposition leader on Tuesday lost a final appeal against a two-year jail term imposed in absentia -- a sentence his lawyer denounced as politically motivated.
Cambodia's Supreme Court upheld Sam Rainsy's conviction early last year for inciting racial discrimination and intentionally damaging wooden posts denoting the boundary with Vietnam in an incident in October 2009.
"The decision by the Supreme Court is not fair and it is not justice for my client. I always tell the court that this is a politically-motivated case, not a penal case," Sam Rainsy's lawyer Choung Chou Ngy told AFP.
"I have not yet consulted with my client about our next step," he added.
The outspoken opposition politician, who lives in France, had already lost his first appeal against the sentence.
He now faces a total of 12 years in prison if he returns to Cambodia, after a court late last year also sentenced him to 10 years in jail for publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam in a separate case.
The Sam Rainsy party and rights groups have in the past said the convictions were an attempt to keep Sam Rainsy from taking part in Cambodia's national election in 2013.
He is the main rival to Prime Minister Hun Sen, 59, who has ruled Cambodia since 1985 and has vowed to remain in power until he is 90 years old.
Sam Rainsy has repeatedly accused Vietnam of encroaching on Cambodian territory.
No formal map has ever been agreed between the two countries.
The neighbouring nations officially began demarcating their 1,270-kilometre (790-mile) border in September 2006 after decades of territorial disputes stemming from French colonial times.
Hun Sen's government has for its part been embroiled in a bitter border dispute with Thailand which has claimed lives on both sides.
------------------------------------
Cambodia's highest court rejects appeal by exiled opposition leader
Mar 1, 2011,
Phnom Penh - Cambodia's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a two-year jail sentence against exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy for tampering with demarcation posts on the border with Vietnam.
The ruling confirmed the judgement of a lower court last year, which convicted Sam Rainsy of racial incitement and damaging public property after he uprooted several border markers.
Sam Rainsy's lawyer, Choung Chou Ngy, condemned Tuesday's ruling.
'It is not fair - I think this is a political case, not a penal case,' he told the German Press Agency dpa.
Sam Rainsy currently lives in exile in France.
Mu Sochua, a prominent parliamentarian with the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), said Tuesday the ruling was predictable since it had come from a judicial system 'totally shaped to silence the opposition.'
'We continue to condemn the form and quality of justice in Cambodia, because the courts are used as a political tool against Mr Sam Rainsy as well as other activists who are not in favour of the policies of the government,' she said.
Mu Sochua, who lost a defamation case against Prime Minister Hun Sen last year, has yet to have her parliamentary immunity restored.
The SRP has charged that the land rights of Cambodian farmers living near the Vietnam border were not being respected in the ongoing process to demarcate the 1,270-kilometre border. The process is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
The incident riled Hanoi, which is a close ally of Hun Sen's government. Vietnam has significant interests in agribusiness, aviation, telecommunications and banking in Cambodia.
The judiciary has long been criticized as being a pawn of the ruling party.
Last June, the United Nations human rights envoy, Surya Subedi, said some judges were not interested in upholding the law. The courts faced 'tremendous challenges in delivering justice for the people of the country, especially the poor and marginalized,' he said.
1 comment:
Only traitor like Hun Sen and traitorous govt. like the present govt. will persecute and punish patriots like Rainsy and Meas Srey who tried to protect Khmer land from Vietnam. The court should bring Hun Sen and his traitorous clique to court and sentence them to long jail term for treason.
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