via CAAI News Media
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 29 (AP) - (Kyodo)—U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch on Friday called a Cambodian court's closed-door conviction and sentencing of the country's opposition leader Sam Rainsy a "farce" that merely demonstrates the government control over the judiciary.
On Wednesday, the Svay Rieng provincial court convicted Sam Rainsy and two villagers on charges related to their removal and destruction of demarcation posts on Cambodia's border with Vietnam that they claimed had been shifted illegally to Vietnam's advantage.
Sam Rainsy, who is in France, was sentenced in absentia to two years imprisonment and the two villagers were each sentenced to one year in prison.
"The Cambodian government's relentless crackdown on critics continues apace in 2010," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "(Prime Minister) Hun Sen seems intent on reversing the political pluralism that has been created over the past two decades."
Speaking from Paris in a video conference with journalists Thursday, Sam Rainsy said he would not return to Cambodia until the jailed villagers are first freed and their usurped land is returned.
"It is not a personal issue. This is the issue of territory of Cambodia," he said.
Human Rights Watch said the one-day trial, which was closed to journalists, human rights organizations and the general public, giving the Human Rights Watch, "did not meet international standards for a fair trial."
It said that since 1995 when Sam Rainsy created his political party, he has been subject to assassination attempts, threats, intimidation, criminal cases and civil court cases.
On March 30, 1997, for example, he barely escaped with his life when a political rally he was addressing came under grenade attack, killing at least 16 people and wounding 150.
During 2009, at least 10 government critics were prosecuted for criminal defamation and disinformation based on complaints by government and military officials, while criminal defamation, disinformation, and incitement lawsuits were also filed against two parliamentarians from the Sam Rainsy Party and a youth activistm Human Rights Watch said.
"Any hopes of slowing Hun Sen's assault on the political opposition now depends on the donor community, which props up the government financially," Adams said. "This political trial should make donors recognize the gravity of the situation."
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