Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, told RFA that no one who engages in peaceful expression should ever be charged with a crime, and said it was “ridiculous” that Hun Sen announced Hong Sok Hour had committed treason and ordered the police to arrest him.
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A prominent Cambodian opposition senator who angered Prime Minister Hun Sen with a Facebook post has been arrested and will be charged with treason, a government spokesman has said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for three decades, is sensitive to criticism from his opponents that he is too soft on Vietnam over the disputed sections of the two countries’ border.
A lawmaker from Mr Sok Hour’s Cambodia National Rescue Party said the posted treaty was a fake and that his arrest was “illegal” as senators have immunity from arrest or prosecution.
In a letter sent to Nai Pena, Acting President of the Senate, on Saturday, National Police chief Neth Savoeun said the arrest of the senator Hong Sok Hour was made based on a “red-handed” crime and in accordance with the kingdom’s code of criminal procedures.
Speaking to reporters outside the court on Sunday, Chuong Choungy, a defense lawyer for Hong Sok Hour, said that with the charges, the senator could face five to ten years in prison if convicted.
“The offence is a treason”, Hun Sen said. “It is an act of treason”, the spokesman added. The online posting said the two countries pledged to dissolve their border.
Hong Sok Hour has denied the charges against him.
The neighbours have shared a testy relationship since Vietnam’s troops invaded to oust Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 before withdrawing a decade later.
Ties between Hanoi and Phnom Penh have remained friendly under Hun Sen who rose to power during the Vietnamese occupation and has run Cambodia for the last 30 years.
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The opposition says the courts, under Hun Sen’s influence, are pressuring them to drop the border issue by jailing their activists on insurrection charges in connection with a violent protest past year.
