Cambodian opposition leader loses appeal against jail term

via CAAI

Cambodian opposition party leader Sam Rainsy lives in self-imposed exile in Europ

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's fugitive opposition leader on Wednesday lost an appeal against a two-year jail term imposed in absentia for uprooting border markings.

The appeals court in the capital Phnom Penh upheld Sam Rainsy's January conviction for inciting racial discrimination and intentionally damaging wooden posts denoting Cambodia's boundary with Vietnam.

The court did, however, agree to release the two villagers who were convicted alongside the opposition politician and jailed for a year for damaging the border markings during the incident in October 2009.

Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile in Europe, faces a total of 12 years in prison if he returns to Cambodia, after a court last month sentenced him to 10 years in jail for publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam.

The Sam Rainsy party and rights groups have in the past said the convictions against the opposition leader were politically motivated and an attempt to keep him from taking part in Cambodia's upcoming national elections.

"I cannot accept this decision because my client has not incited and destroyed. My client just wants to have a resolution and defend territorial integrity," Sam Rainsy?s lawyer Choung Choungy told reporters at the court.

Sam Rainsy, the main rival to premier Hun Sen, has repeatedly accused Vietnam of encroaching on Cambodian territory.

No formal map has ever been agreed between the two countries.

The neighbouring nations officially began demarcating their 1,270-kilometre (790-mile) border in September 2006 after decades of territorial disputes stemming from French colonial times.