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Kem Sokha, the most important opposition leader in Cambodia, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for treason: former president of the National Redemption Party, dissolved by the government in 2017, Kem Sokha was found guilty of planning to the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which has ruled the country authoritatively since 1985 and has long been accused of repressing dissent. Kem Sokha will no longer be able to run or vote during the election; he will serve his sentence under house arrest.
Kem Sokha, 69, was arrested in 2017 on charges of conspiring with “foreign forces” to overthrow Hun Sen. The only thing cited as evidence of the alleged conspiracy was a 2013 video of him speaking to Cambodians residents of Australia and claim to have received support from some pro-democracy groups in the United States. Both he and his party had denied the charges of conspiracy and treason.
Hun Sen, who is 70 years old, is a former commander of the Khmer Rouge, the followers of the Cambodian Communist Party, who between 1975 and 1979 imposed a violent dictatorship during which around 2 million people were killed (a quarter of entire Cambodian population). In more than 35 years in power with his People’s Party he has transformed Cambodia into an authoritarian regime, and his government has been accused on several occasions of using the courts and the security forces to intimidate political opponents and crack down on dissidents. Among other things, a few weeks ago Hun Sen had ordered the closure of Voice of Democracyconsidered the last of the country’s independent media.