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Amnesty International
“Mam Sonando should never have been imprisoned in the first place. We have to hope that today’s decision to release him represents a halt to the assault on freedom of expression.” - Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's Cambodia Researcher
A Cambodian court’s decision to overturn anti-state convictions and a two-decade prison sentence against a prominent journalist is a positive step for freedom of expression in the country, Amnesty International said.
Mam Sonando, 72, the owner of one of Cambodia’s few independent radio stations, was first convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2012 on charges of “insurrection”. Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned simply for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression.
But today the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh overturned the more serious convictions against Mam Sonando. Instead, he was given a five-year prison sentence for offences including “instigating illegal clearing and occupation of forest.” He has already been in prison for eight months and the rest of his sentence is suspended. He will be released this week.
“We welcome Mam Sonando’s imminent release, which is a step in the right direction for freedom of expression in Cambodia,” said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Cambodia who attended today’s appeal verdict hearing.
“But Mam Sonando should never have been imprisoned in the first place, and the convictions that stand appear baseless.
“The introduction of new charges at such a late stage raises concerns about the fairness of the proceedings, while the suspended sentence may be designed to silence Mam Sonando.”
“However, we have to hope that today’s decision to release Mam Sonando represents a halt to the assault on freedom of expression, in a year when Cambodia will hold national parliamentary elections.”
4 comments:
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION WILL NEVER COME TO A HALT IF AH HUN XEN STILL IN POWER
Mam Sonanda, you are hero.
From Khmer USA.
A Pi + Mike = son of a vc and a cpp bloodsuckers!. He is a coward by using 'khmers kill khmers'. You think you can get away from such injust behaviour. I am sure time will come for you and I know it won't be long. You can run but you can't hide. What you are doing right now is called 'killing two birds with one stone'.
You are trying to make PM and OP to continue to fight one another for the benefit of your wicked nation called 'VC'. Right now, everybody knows what you are capable off, that is 'DECIEVING", e.g. in wwii you sent your whores to lure and have sex with the U.S trops only to kill them shortly after, the name of it was called the 'Tet Attack'.
You also told kingta and pol pot not to be part of the U.S or you will be sorry and your VC promised them both the world if they are to be on your side, but then your VC betrayed them both and made them killed one another and you even created Chea Sim and Han Surin to help in the killing of the khmer nation (ethnic cleansing).
Today, everyone knows that you are the main killers of all times. And now, you are still trying to use the same tactic with my PM and OP of cambodia. It time for all khmer political leaders to wake up and don't be fooled by this VC tactic no more and say 'enough is enough'. The VC knows that, khmers are very intelligent people and therefore, they had to kill many of us in order for them to take control over srok khmer, e.g. the result of 3millions dead, mostly interlectuals says alot.
Therefore, we need to learn from past mistakes and we can avoid future ones to ever happen again. Both PM and OP have done alot of good works but lack of effective communication skills, that is all.
Au
the hanoi puppet hun sen can take one right turn, but 99 wrong turns.
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