Monday, 9 August 2010

Cambodian court postpones appeal hearing for opposition leader

via Khmer NZ

Posted : Mon, 09 Aug 2010
By : dpa

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's appellate court on Monday postponed hearing the appeal of a two-year jail sentence for opposition leader Sam Rainsy in a dispute over border markers.

Sam Rainsy, in exile in France, was sentenced in January on charges of racial incitement and damaging public property after he uprooted border markers along the Cambodian-Vietnam border last year.

Two villagers were jailed for one year over the same incident.

Opposition parliamentarian Son Chhay said the court was right to postpone the case until August 30 since the villagers' lawyer was out of the country.

He said the outcome of the appeal could be significant since the government is pursuing a separate, but linked, case against Sam Rainsy that could see him jailed for another 18 years over "disinformation" about maps he publicized of the border with Vietnam.

But Son Chhay felt there was "not much chance" the court would approach the case objectively when it reconvened.

"This regime continues to use the court as a tool to intimidate the opposition," he said, adding that it was unlikely that Sam Rainsy would return for the August 30 hearing.

The opposition party charged in October that the land rights of Cambodian farmers in the area were not respected in the process to demarcate the 1,270-kilometre border, which is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

The incident riled Hanoi, a close ally of Prime Minister Hun Sen's government which has significant interests in agribusiness, aviation, telecommunications and banking in Cambodia.

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