Immunity bid looms for Mu Sochua

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua (R) greets villagers during a trip to Prey Veng province last week. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Monday, 30 July 2012
Meas Sokchea and Shane Worrell
The Phnom Penh Post

The Court of Appeal will decide this week whether to restore Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua’s parliamentary immunity, which she was stripped of amid a defamation row with Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2009.

Sochua told the Post yesterday she hopes the case, due to be heard on Friday, will clear her name as she focuses on next year’s national election with the newly formed Cambodian Democratic Movement for National Rescue party.

“It’s my full right as a member of parliament to have that immunity,” she said.

Sochua tried – unsuccessfully – to sue Hun Sen in 2009, alleging he made insulting references to her during a speech in Kampot province.

French Government Advocates Respect For Political Pluralism And Democratic Debate In Cambodia

Left to right: Sam Rainsy, Ho Vann and Mu Sochua (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

February 4, 2008

FRENCH GOVERNMENT ADVOCATES RESPECT FOR POLITICAL PLURALISM AND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE IN CAMBODIA

Responding on January 28 to a question from French parliamentarian Chantal Brunel, Chairperson of France-Cambodia Friendship Group at the French National Assembly, Foreign Affairs State Secretary Pierre Lellouche declared that the Paris government is “preoccupied” by the situation facing the opposition Sam Rainsy Party in Cambodia.

Besides the case of SRP leader Sam Rainsy who has been recently prosecuted, the French government is also “worried” about the removal of the parliamentary immunity of Ho Vann and Mu Sochua, two other National Assembly members from the SRP.

About the recurrent lifting of opposition parliamentarians’ immunity and their subsequent trials, which the French government “deplores,” State Secretary Pierre Lellouche said, “We cannot accept these practices, which pertain to intimidation.” He stressed the importance that France attaches to the “respect for political pluralism and democratic debate” in Cambodia.

In conclusion, the French government will continue to pay “close attention” and to “actively follow” the situation facing the opposition in Cambodia.

To read the official minutes of the debate in French please click at http://tinyurl.com/ya6nl75

SRP Members of Parliament

CALD calls for the immediate and unconditional restoration of the parliamentary immunity of Mu Sochua and Ho Vann

CALD Resolution No. 2 S. 2009
(2009-06-23)

CALD Resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional restoration of the parliamentary immunity of Hon. Mu Sochua, MP and Hon. Ho Vann, MP

Noting that Madame Mu Sochua and Mr. Ho Vann, members of the opposition of the Kingdom of Cambodia, were stripped of their parliamentary immunity by a vote of the Cambodian People’s Party-dominated National Assembly on June 22, 2009;

Noting that 91 parliamentarians out of 111 MPs present in the National Assembly session voted to lift the two opposition MP’s parliamentary immunity;

Aware that Madame Mu Sochua filed a case against Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on grounds of defamation due to the gross disrespect and insults made by the latter, and the case having been previously dismissed, Mr. Hun Sen has filed for defamatory remarks against Madame Sochua and her lawyer and raised the issue of stripping her parliamentary immunity;

Aware that Mr. Ho Vann is being sued for defamation by senior military officials over allegations that he insulted the quality of their university degrees;

Affirming the resolution of the Committee of Human Rights of the International Parliamentary Union underscoring the fact that “parliamentary immunity is designed to protect parliamentarians from possibly groundless proceedings or accusations that may be politically motivated”;

Concerned that the lifting of parliamentary immunity of opposition legislators is intended to intimidate and silence CPP’s critics and that such action can result to a perilous precedent that weakens the legislature as an institution and as a separate branch of government whose independence and credibility are indispensable in any democratic country;

Bothered that this action further undermines whatever democratic progress has been made in Cambodia;

Noting that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement that “the taking away of, or threat of taking away of, parliamentarian immunity is a threat regarding the lawmaker and seriously affects democracy”;

Be it therefore resolved that the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of the parliamentary immunity of Hon. Mu Sochua, MP and Hon. Ho Vann, MP.

For the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats:

(sgd.)
Dr. J.R. Nereus O. Acosta
Secretary General
Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats

June 23, 2009
Manila, Philippines