A Change of Guard

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Thursday 14 March 2013

Cambodian activist Mam Sonando to be freed in days

Rights groups welcome decision by appeal court in Phnom Penh to drop insurrection charges against owner of Beehive Radio
Cambodian supporters of Mam Sonando
Cambodian supporters of Mam Sonando protest outside the appeal court in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty
Cambodian activist Mam Sonando will be released from prison this week after his 20-year jail sentence was suspended on Thursday by a court in Phnom Penh, a decision hailed by rights groups as a positive step for freedom of expression in the country.
The activist and owner of Beehive Radio, one of Cambodia's few independent media outlets, was found guilty in October last year of leading a secessionist plot in Kratie province, where villagers had been protesting against evictions for a rubber plantation.
Two co-defendants, Chan Sovann and Touch Rin, have also had their sentences reduced.
An outspoken critic of Cambodia's long-standing president, Hun Sen, as well as land grabs that in recent years have taken place across the state, Sonando, 72, was not in the country at the time of the protest, prompting activists to claim that his arrest and consequent imprisonment were politically motivated.

On Thursday, judges dropped the charge against Sonando of "leading an insurrection" and replaced it with a minor sentence, the Phnom Penh Post reported. His sentence was cut to five years, then suspended to eight months, most of which time Sonando has already served.
His release, expected on Saturday, was hailed by activists as a step in the right direction for Cambodia, where freedom of expression is often restricted. But rights groups noted that much more had to be done to ensure true freedom for activists fighting for justice in the country.
"Today's decision will give hope to other land and forest defenders who are being held by the Cambodian authorities," said Oliver Courtney, of international campaigns group Global Witness.
"But we should remember that the Cambodian government has been pressured from every side to release Sonando, and in less high-profile cases they're still doing whatever it takes to silence their critics. As the country's land grabbing crisis gets worse, more and more people are getting arrested for speaking out – that has to stop."
Nearly three-quarters of Cambodia's arable land has been transferred in so-called economic land concessions to private companies, research from Global Witness has found, usually without consultation or compensation. Local activists estimate that more than 400,000 Cambodians have been evicted from their farms or homes since 2003.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't put an innocence man in jail because an innocence man is not belong there.Jail has no walls if you put an innocence man it....Free at last...free at last......Long live Mr Mam Sonando...

Yobal Khmer

Anonymous said...

Hun Sen must stop taking orders from your boss (Ah Youn Yiekong).

Anonymous said...

Justice has prevailed. Before Mam Sonando was sentenced to 20 years jail, the judge, under order from Hun Sen, set three conditions for the release of Mam Sonando.

He said Mam Sonando will be set free if:
1. Mam Sonnado close his radio station.
2. If Mam Sonando agrees to dissolve his Association of Democrats.
4. If Mam Sonando agrees to write a letter of apology to Hun Sen.

Mam Sonando said "NO" to all three conditions and said that "why should I agree to all these conditions because I would be released one day anyway".

Now his word has proven correct. This means that he rather sacrifice his freedom and not exchange something that is so dear and important to him and the people of Cambodia. He is a real man of principle who keeps his true principle and his belief.