Cambodia’s imprisoned opposition leader was freed on bail on Sunday night after spending a year locked up on charges of treason widely seen as designed to neutralise his political power during a crucial election year.
The daughter of Kem Sokha, Kem Monovithya, confirmed that her father had been released. As a condition of his release, he will not be able to leave the city block surrounding his house, she said. His bail was granted on grounds of ill health, according to a statement released by a Cambodian court.
The opposition leader was arrested at midnight on September 3rd, 2017, and accused of conspiring with the United States in a plot to bring down Cambodia’s government. Kem Sokha has maintained his innocence and said he was only trying to take power through legal means, by winning elections.
Over the past year, his entire political movement has been dismantled. His Cambodia National Rescue Party was deemed illegal by a government-packed court in November and more than 100 of its top officials were banned from politics. Journalists and human rights groups, particularly those with US ties, were also targets of the sweeping pre-election crackdown by the country’s authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen, who coasted to re-election victory in July in a vote that was widely criticised as rigged.
International pressure
Ou Virak, a Cambodian-American economist who heads Future Forum, a research institute based in Phnom Penh, said that Kem Sokha’s imprisonment had served its purpose and that the release was expected, given Hun Sen’s longtime habit of imprisoning his rivals and critics before elections and freeing them afterward.
Ou Virak said international pressure also seemed to have an effect. In June, Washington announced that General Hing Bun Heang, the head of Hun Sen’s large paramilitary bodyguard unit, would face financial sanctions because of the unit’s role in human rights abuses.
Last month, the US State Department said it would impose visa restrictions on officials accused of “undermining democracy in Cambodia,” along with their families. Also at risk is Cambodia’s preferential access to European Union markets under the bloc’s “Everything but Arms” policy to aid developing countries. On Thursday, the European Union is scheduled to debate whether to take action over Kem Sokha’s imprisonment. – New York Times