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| Cambodians take pictures of the cremation site for the late former King Norodom Sihanouk near the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh on January 29, 2013. |
AFP News – 01/30/2013
Cambodia says it will free more than 400 prisoners, including a Thai convicted of spying, to mark the funeral of its beloved former king
Cambodia will free more than 400 prisoners, including a Thai convicted of spying, to mark the funeral of its beloved former king, Norodom Sihanouk, an official said on Wednesday.
Sihanouk's son Norodom Sihamoni, the current king, has signed a royal decree to pardon 412 prisoners who will be released on Monday, the day of his father's cremation, according to justice ministry spokesman Sam Pracheameanith.
"This is a special pardon to mark the royal funeral. It is the royal tradition to pardon prisoners during such a funeral for a king," he told AFP.
In a separate decree, Sihamoni cut the sentence of Veera Somkwamkid, a former leader of Thailand's "Yellow Shirt" royalist movement jailed for spying in 2011 in a disputed border area, by six months.
But it granted freedom to Veera's secretary Ratree Pipattanapaibul, who was jailed for six years over the same incident, Pracheameanith said, adding she would be released on Friday.
Sihanouk, who abdicated in 2004 after steering Cambodia through six decades marked by independence from France, civil war, the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and finally peace, died of a heart attack in Beijing on October 15.
A lavish funeral procession on Friday will see his body carried from the royal palace in Phnom Penh to a funeral pyre in a nearby park, which is expected to draw more than one million mourners to the capital's streets.
The revered former monarch will be cremated on Monday, and according to the schedule for the funeral, the Cambodian prisoners will be released at the cremation site where they will receive gifts from King Sihamoni and the Queen Mother -- Sihanouk's widow Monique.
3 comments:
To free all prisoners of conscience it's got be Hun Sen's funeral.
why Mr. Sam Rainsy wanted a pardon from the King.
Mr. Sam Rainsy always have said, he did nothing wrong, therefore he does not need a pardon.
Answer!
Because honorable Rainsy was unjustly convicted by Yuon puppet's regime Hun Thug sen for protecting khmer's land along the border,in the eyes of the nationlist whom were in the right mind the Honorable Rainsy was a HERO,in the blinded eye of Hun thug sen Rainsy is a thorn in his good eye,wrongly convicted criminal banned from participate in Govt election in the name of Hanoi scheme to destroy Khmers' nationalist/Khmer's race like its had done to Champa and Laos and Kampuchea krom our sisters & brothers.Wake up folks! Its all political scheme from Hanoi by its puppet who has no brain [Hun sen] we still have hope as long the bloods still flowing in our nationalism bodies Khmers' land will not be disappeared.Please unite together to fight dictator Hun for the sake of Khmers' race!
....Long live Khmers' race!...
Down Hanoi or Cpp puppet Hun sick...
Kmenhwatt
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