September 22, 2011
KANGAROO COURT IN CAMBODIA IGNORES THE “NON BIS IN IDEM” PRINCIPLE
Today the Kangaroo court in Phnom Penh is holding a “rehearing” of my case related to a defamation complaint filed by current Foreign Minister and former Khmer Rouge prison chief Hor Nam Hong.
The case was first heard last April without my or my lawyer’s participation, and I was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison.
On May 5, 2011 my Khmer lawyer wrote to the President of the Court to oppose the above verdict on the basis of the universal judicial principle “Non bis in idem” (no one shall be twice tried for the same offence).
As a matter of fact, in relation to another defamation lawsuit filed against me in France by the same Hor Nam Hong, which is very similar in substance to the one he filed in Cambodia, the French Supreme Court ("Cour de Cassation") on April 27, 2011 declared I was not guilty of anything and Hor Nam Hong finally and definitively lost his case before the French tribunal.
Therefore, today’s “rehearing” is a violation of the “Non bis in idem” (no one shall be twice tried for the same offence) principle, especially in light of the difference in the degree of independence and respectability enjoyed respectively by the French (real) Court and the Cambodian (Kangaroo) Court.
Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament
New York City, USA
KANGAROO COURT IN CAMBODIA IGNORES THE “NON BIS IN IDEM” PRINCIPLE
Today the Kangaroo court in Phnom Penh is holding a “rehearing” of my case related to a defamation complaint filed by current Foreign Minister and former Khmer Rouge prison chief Hor Nam Hong.
The case was first heard last April without my or my lawyer’s participation, and I was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison.
On May 5, 2011 my Khmer lawyer wrote to the President of the Court to oppose the above verdict on the basis of the universal judicial principle “Non bis in idem” (no one shall be twice tried for the same offence).
As a matter of fact, in relation to another defamation lawsuit filed against me in France by the same Hor Nam Hong, which is very similar in substance to the one he filed in Cambodia, the French Supreme Court ("Cour de Cassation") on April 27, 2011 declared I was not guilty of anything and Hor Nam Hong finally and definitively lost his case before the French tribunal.
Therefore, today’s “rehearing” is a violation of the “Non bis in idem” (no one shall be twice tried for the same offence) principle, especially in light of the difference in the degree of independence and respectability enjoyed respectively by the French (real) Court and the Cambodian (Kangaroo) Court.
Sam Rainsy
Elected Member of Parliament
New York City, USA
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