Cambodia court rejects release of politician Kem Sokha amid rights group criticism News
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Cambodia court rejects release of politician Kem Sokha amid rights group criticism

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday condemned the decision of the Phnom Penh Court of Appeal in Cambodia to uphold the conviction of detained opposition leader Kem Sokha, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison. HRW described the conviction as politically motivated and urged Cambodian authorities to quash it and immediately release Sokha.

The court’s decision not only upheld Kem Sokha’s conviction and prison sentence but also extended his house arrest and imposed an additional five-year travel ban. Kem Sokha, a politician and former president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested in 2017 on treason charges. In March 2023, the court convicted him of conspiracy with a foreign power under Article 443 of the Cambodian Criminal Code.

However, HRW considered the charges brought against Sokha to be baseless and deemed his trial a politically motivated prosecution targeting opposition figures in Cambodia. The rights organization also highlighted multiple procedural irregularities and human rights abuses during Sokha’s trial, including arbitrary and prolonged pretrial detention as well as trial delays that violated both Cambodian and international human rights standards. These criticisms echoed the UN’s findings concerning Sokha’s trial, which also identified due process and fair trial violations.

HRW further noted that since Sokha’s arrest in 2017, Cambodian authorities have curtailed freedom of speech and other human rights, increased harassment campaigns against political opposition, opened trials against opposition figures, and dissolved the CNRP. Consequently, HRW urged foreign governments to press the Cambodian government to release Kem Sokha and demanded that they refrain from providing any technical support for the upcoming elections, scheduled for June 2027, until authorities take action to reopen political space.

Relatedly, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed serious concerns about the court’s decision to uphold Sokha’s conviction in addition to the conviction of 33 other opposition activists on the same day for their comments on a major development project in the country. Similarly, he called on authorities to quash these convictions and unconditionally release Kem Sokha.

Cambodian authorities arrested Kem Sokha in September 2017 and convicted him of conspiring with a foreign power between 1993 and 2017 to overthrow then-Prime Minister Hun Sen. His conviction and trial have drawn criticism from international rights organizations, which viewed the case as part of a broader restrictive policy targeting political activism and civil society. In May 2024, HRW urged the UN to press the Cambodian government to enact significant legal reforms to improve the human rights situation amid increasing restrictions on freedom of expression, labour rights, and civil society.

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