Activist slams ‘unjust’ jail term

Mam Sonando (centre), owner of the independent Beehive radio station, gestures upon his arrival as prison guards escort him to the Appeal court in Phnom Penh yesterday. (AFP/Phnom Penh)

5 March 2013
AFP

A prominent critic of Cambodia’s government lashed out against his 20-year jail term at an appeal hearing yesterday, as hundreds of supporters massed outside the court calling for his release.

Radio station owner Mam Sonando, who has dual Cambodian-French citizenship, was convicted in October on charges including insurrection and inciting people to take up arms against the state.

“The allegations are very unjust,” Sonando, who is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience, told a hearing at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh packed with foreign diplomats and rights activists.

“I cannot accept the conviction by the lower court,” he added, saying he was a scapegoat for “troublemakers” who wanted him to take the blame for unrest triggered by a land dispute.

The 71-year-old is accused of involvement in an alleged plot to establish an autonomous region in eastern Kratie province.

Rights groups have called the charges baseless and said the government was seeking to justify its harsh crackdown on a land dispute there in May, when a teenage girl was shot dead by security forces clashing with demonstrators.