Sam Rainsy's letter to The Cambodia Daily about Hor Namhong's defamation lawsuits

September 6, 2011

The Editor

The Cambodia Daily

Phnom Penh

Sir,

In “Sam Rainsy’s Defamation Lawsuit To Be Reheard” (September 5, page 27), it was reported that “The case was first heard in April without Mr Rainsy or his lawyer’s participation, and a verdict has yet to be delivered.”

Actually, a guilty verdict was made public with a two-year imprisonment sentence handed down to me on April 25 by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in relation to the defamation and disinformation lawsuit filed by Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong.

On May 5, my lawyer wrote to the President of the Court to oppose my condemnation in absentia 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 Mr Hor Namhong, which is very similar in substance to the one he filed in Cambodia, the French Supreme Court ("Cour de Cassation") on April 27 declared I was not guilty of anything and Mr Hor Namhong finally and definitively lost his case before the French tribunal.

Therefore, the summons I received from the Cambodian tribunal to attend a “rehearing” of the case later this month, is a violation of the “Non bis in idem” principle, especially in light of the difference in the degree of independence and respectability enjoyed respectively by the French Court and the Cambodian Court.

Sincerely,

Sam Rainsy

Elected Member of Parliament

Paris