Appeals Court Upholds Prince's Embezzlement Sentence

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
03 October 2007

The Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld an 18-month sentence leveled at Prince Norodom Ranariddh in absentia for crimes related to embezzlement.

Prince Randariddh has said he was set up in courts controlled by the ruling Cambodian People's Party, and has refused to return to Cambodia until the sentence is lifted. He is running an eponymous party from abroad.

The charges stem from Prince Ranariddh's role as president of the government coalition party, Funcinpec; he was found guilty of selling Funcinpec's headquarters in 2005 and, after his ouster from the party, turning the property into the headquarters for his new party.

Jail term upheld for Cambodian prince

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A Cambodian court Wednesday upheld ousted royalist leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh's 18-month jail sentence over the illegal sale of his former political party's headquarters.

Ranariddh, who remains in self-imposed exile, was convicted of fraud in March after he used the proceeds from the sale to purchase another property in his name.

"The appeal court found enough evidence of guilt against Prince Norodom Ranariddh for breach of trust," said appeal court Judge Thou Mony.

An official from the Prince's new political party said the verdict was politically motivated.

"It is unjust for the Prince ...It is the objective of someone to prevent the Prince from entering the country," said You Hokry, general secretary of the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP).

NRP officials fear that Ranariddh will not return to Cambodia, where he faces immediate arrest, in time to contest general elections in 2008.

Ranariddh, who was sacked as president of the royalist Funcinpec party last October, has remained overseas since being sentenced in March to jail over the 3.6-million-dollar real estate deal.

The conviction was another blow against the embattled prince, a former premier who for years had been Prime Minister Hun Sen's coalition government partner.

Following his ouster from Funcinpec, the prince's former party allies shunned him and an adultery complaint filed by his wife further battered his reputation.

Ranariddh has faced jail before but was saved by a royal pardon from his father, former king Norodom Sihanouk, in 1998 after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup with the Khmer Rouge a year earlier.