Cambodia reduces jail term for opposition leader

Cambodian opposition party leader Sam Rainsy (L) (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)

Tuesday, 20 September 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH — The Cambodian appeal court on Tuesday shaved three years off fugitive opposition leader Sam Rainsy's ten-year prison sentence for publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam.

The leader of the eponymous Sam Rainsy Party, who lives in self-imposed exile in Europe, was sentenced in absentia for forging and publishing public documents in September 2010, one of a string of convictions against him.

Cambodia's Court of Appeal cut the term to seven years due to new sentencing guidelines in a penal code that came into force late last December, the government's lawyer Ky Tech told AFP. Prosecutor Ngeth Sarath confirmed the reduction.

Sam Rainsy now faces a total of 11 years in prison if he returns to Cambodia, after several convictions that his supporters say are politically motivated.

He was given a two-year sentence in January 2010 for inciting racial discrimination and uprooting border markings with neighbouring Vietnam in an incident the previous year.

After exhausting his appeals against that punishment, Sam Rainsy was in March stripped of his parliamentary seat.

In April this year, he was slapped with yet another two-year jail term for accusing the foreign minister of being a former Khmer Rouge member.

The 10 year sentence, which has now been reduced to seven, relates to claims he posted a "fake map" on his party's website to show Vietnam was encroaching on Cambodian territory.

The opposition party and rights groups have said the convictions were politically motivated and are an attempt to keep him from taking part in Cambodia's national election in 2013.

The government and ruling party deny this.

Sam Rainsy is seen as the main rival to Prime Minister Hun Sen, 60, who was a Khmer Rouge cadre before he turned against the regime. Hun Sen has vowed to stay in power until he is 90 years old.