Mrs. Mu Sochua asked the Supreme Court to delay her hearing

30 March 2010
Kampuchea Thmei
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Kampot SRP MP Mu Sochua requested the Supreme Court to delay her hearing as she is busy with her mission in the US.

According to a request letter dated 29 March 2010 sent by Mrs. Mu Sochua to the Supreme Court president which Kampuchea Thmei received, it indicated that a number of news media reported that the Supreme Court plans to hold a hearing on 07 April 2010 in regards to case 201 which was initiated in 13 November 2009. However, because she is busy with her mission in the US until 17 April 2010, Mrs. Mu Sochua asked the Supreme Court to delay its hearing to a date after 17 April 2010.

Regarding the hearing into case 201, up until the afternoon of 29 March, Kampuchea Thmei cannot yet obtain comments from Mr. Dith Monty, president of the Supreme Court. However, a number of news media reported that the Supreme Court will hold its hearing in this criminal case on 07 April 2010.

Criminal case no. 201 dated 13 November 2009 involves the defamation lawsuit brought up by Hun Xen against Mrs. Mu Sochua after she held a press conference claiming that HunXen defamed her and attacked her honor as a woman and a parliamentarian. The Phnom Penh municipal court handed a defeat to Mrs. Mu Sochua, but she decided to appeal the verdict. The Appeal Court also let stand the decision handed down by the Phnom Penh municipal court.

Following the Appeal Court decision, Mrs. Mu Sochua appealed to the Supreme Court. Nevertheless, no matter how high she will appeal her case, there is no hope that Mrs. Mu Sochua could win her case because [the coward] Hun Xen did not dare name the person he was pointing out, and both the first instance court and the Appeal Court have already handed a victory to Hun Xen in this case. Therefore, it is likely that Mrs. Mu Sochua will lose her case at the Supreme Court as well.

Mu Sochua: anticipating jail

Mu Sochua in Geneva, Switzerland. (William Dowell/GlobalPost)

The Cambodian activist and politician sees a jail sentence as the next step in her struggle.

March 6, 2010
By William Dowell
GlobalPost

GENEVA, Switzerland — Mu Sochua, one of the more impressive speakers at “Courage to Lead,” a recent gathering here of more than 40 women involved in human rights, is not a woman to be taken lightly.

After spending the last 20 years fighting for women's rights and against both human trafficking and general corruption in Cambodia, the deputy in Cambodia's leading opposition party has embroiled herself in a head-on clash with the country's perennial Prime Minister Hun Sen. The spat now seems likely to land her in jail.

At a superficial glance, the furor seems slightly silly. It began last spring when local tensions began to mount after Cambodian army soldiers burned several villages in an apparent land grab.

The army was not exactly popular in Mu Sochua's district, which includes Kampot, about two hours drive south of Phnom Penh. When Mu Sochua protested against a Cambodian army officer using official government vehicles during a political campaign, a scuffle ensued and Mu Sochua's blouse was accidentally ripped open. Hun Sen mentioned the incident in a speech, casually dismissing Mu Sochua as a hustler, who liked to expose herself and had a tendency to grab at men.

Mu Sochua has also accused the prime minister of calling her "cheung klang," which means "strong legs," in Khmer and is considered an insult.

If Hun Sen expected Mu Sochua to roll over, he was wrong. Mu Sochua promptly sued him for defamation in a Phnom Penh municipal court, demanding 500 Cambodian rials, or roughly 12 cents in damages along with an apology. Instead of apologizing, Hun Sen, who likes to go by the rather ungainly honorific “Samdach Akkak Moha Sena Padey Dekjo” promptly countersued.

Not surprisingly Mu Sochua's case was thrown out of court, while Hun Sen's stuck. Repeating his earlier slurs, Hun Sen went on to challenge Mu Sochua to take her case to international courts if she wanted, and to see how far that was likely to get her. Mu Sochua's parliamentary immunity was stripped away. An appeals court confirmed a lower court's verdict against her for libel, and the case is now headed for the Cambodia's Supreme Court, which Mu Sochua also expects to rule in favor of the “Samdach.” The penalty for losing the suit is a fine of roughly $4,100, but Mu Sochua refuses to pay it, and insists that she will go to jail for six months instead.

It may all seem like much ado about not very much, but Mu Sochua insists that there is a lot more at stake. Hun Sen, who was propelled into his current position after Vietnam ousted Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in 1979, has held onto power ever since by making sure that his party hand picks Cambodia's 13,000 village chiefs.

“This nation has to be built on the rule of law and not just one man,” says Mu Sochua. “These people are afraid of democracy. The way they maintain control is by not allowing the people to elect their village chiefs. The Cambodian people live in fear of the village chiefs. At the same time the country has opened itself up to a market economy, which brings in a lot of money that is not managed well, which is why there is so much corruption.”

Hun Sen, who at 57 shows no signs of planning an early retirement, has plenty of reason for wanting to take on Mu Sochua's party. In November 2009, he had Sam Rainsy, who leads the opposition, stripped of parliamentary immunity for the second time that year because Sam Rainsy had removed several posts marking the border with Vietnam. Rainsy contends that the Vietnamese, who were responsible for Hun Sen's rise to power in Cambodia, have been engaged in a land grab for themselves based on questionable treaty arrangements.

Mu Sochua insists that her spat focuses on Hun Sen's vulgar use of language and the corruption of Cambodia's legal system. “What is at stake,” she said, “is democracy. The space for democracy is narrowed by the power of the ruling party, and mainly by the power of Hun Sen, who has his hands in every institution, including the parliament and the courts. He didn't just insult me as a woman. He insulted the parliament as an institution. I am actually taking the justice system itself to court.”

The story gets a bit more complicated since Mu Sochua received a 2005 leadership award from the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation.

“This is also a challenge for the international community,” Mu Sochua says. “They invest $1 billion a year in Cambodia, but they never fulfilled their responsibilities by making it a condition that the government fulfills its obligations towards human rights.” Hillary Clinton delivered a brief address via satellite at the end of the Geneva meeting, but it was not clear what her take as Secretary of State would be on Mu Sochua's case.

Even more potentially troublesome for Hun Sen is the fact that Mu Sochua, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at San Francisco State University and a masters in Social Work at the University of California, Berkely, is married to an American who runs a major project on decentralization for the United Nations in Cambodia. “My husband is completely separate from my political life,” she explains. Her three children now live abroad, but both her husband and children are emotionally supportive. “I told my family that I am going to jail. Please don't talk me out of it. It has come to that point, Mom is going to jail,” she says. “It gives me peace in heart.” Whether it gives Hun Sen or his supporters peace of mind is another matter.

"It may be a judicial defeat, but it is a moral and political victory for us as the opposition": Sam Rainsy

Cambodian lawmaker found guilty of defaming PM

Tue Aug 4, 2009

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court ordered an opposition lawmaker to pay $4,100 in damages on Tuesday for defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen, provoking fresh concerns the government is using the judiciary to suppress its detractors.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruled that Mu Sochua of the Sam Rainsy Party had defamed the long-serving premier when she tried to sue him over comments he made about her conduct during last year's election campaign.

Critics said the ruling reflected Hun Sen's determination to use the courts to muzzle the opposition.

"That was not justice in the courtroom. It was totally political," Sochua told reporters, who were banned from attending the court session.

"I will continue to fight until I get justice. Today, the court could have been a light for justice. The judge gave us darkness instead."

Sochua, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for her work against the trafficking of women in Cambodia, and another lawmaker, Ho Vann, were stripped of their legal immunity last month and lost their seats in parliament as a result.

Vann is accused of spreading false information and faces three years in prison.

Newspaper editor Hang Chkra is serving a one-year sentence in Phnom Penh for writing about alleged government corruption. An opposition activist, Moeung Sonn, fled the country in June after being given a two-year sentence for questioning a lighting system at the famed Angkor Wat temple complex, the country's biggest tourism draw.

Another opposition newspaper shut down after 10 years of publishing to avoid government legal action.

Sara Colm of New York-based Human Rights Watch told Reuters on Tuesday: "This is the most serious crackdown on freedom of expression in years. The space for opposition media and peaceful dissent is rapidly shrinking."
"These lawsuits are a clear attempt to harass the opposition and prevent members of parliament from exercising free expression."

Colm urged donors, who provided nearly $1 billion in aid last year, to make the government aware of their concerns.

"Donors -- particularly those who have funded judicial and legal reform -- need to take a firm stand," she said.

Human Rights Watch also called for an end to using the judiciary as a tool to silence government critics.

Sam Rainsy, leader of the country's largest opposition party which carries his name, said the court ruling had drawn attention to Hun Sen's attempts to intimidate his opponents.

"It may be a judicial defeat, but it is a moral and political victory for us as the opposition," he said.

Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla, criticised rights groups and foreign diplomats last month for interfering in Cambodia's affairs after they voiced concern about the removal of lawmakers' parliamentary immunity.

He has dominated Cambodian politics for more than two decades and won a landslide election victory in July last year.

Mu Sochua vows to fight Hun Xen's lawsuit to the end

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A few hours prior to the meeting of the National Assembly (NA) permanent committee to lift her immunity, Mrs. Mu Sochua declared that she will not pay the 10 million riels ($2,500) fine demanded in Hun Sen’s lawsuit. She claimed that she is ready to fight this lawsuit to the end, and she is willing to walk to jail. Mrs. Mu Scohua told reporters at the SRP party headquarters in Chamcar Mon, Phnom Penh, that: “I declare that I will not pay [the fine], I will fight [this lawsuit] to the end. At the end I will go to jail.” Mrs. Mu Sochua indicated also that she will not flee the country, but that she has to attend the International Women Rights Protection meeting which will be held overseas between 22 June and 6 July.