US condemns ‘fabricated’ case as Cambodian opposition leader is jailed for 27 years

A Cambodian court has sentenced top opposition leader Kem Sokha to 27 years in jail for treason, in a case rights groups say is politically motivated.

“Kem Sokha … is sentenced to 27 years in prison on the charge of collusion with foreigners committed in Cambodia and other places,” said Judge Koy Sao at the court in Phnom Penh on Friday.

The 69-year-old was the joint founder of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue party and has long been a foe of the dictator Hun Sen, Asia’s longest-serving ruler.

Critics say Hun Sen has wound back democratic freedoms and used the courts to stifle opponents, jailing scores of opposition activists and human rights defenders.

The United States ambassador to Cambodia, W Patrick Murphy, said outside the courthouse that the trial and sentence were based on a “fabricated conspiracy” and represented a “miscarriage of justice”.

After the verdict, Kem Sokha was taken from the courtroom to his home, to be placed under house arrest and banned from meeting anyone apart from family members.

The court stripped him of his right to vote and barred him from running for political office.

Arrested in 2017 in a midnight swoop involving hundreds of security forces, Kem Sokha was accused of hatching a “secret plan” in collusion with foreign entities to topple the regime of Hun Sen.

He has repeatedly denied the charges against him.

With Agence France-Presse in Phnom Penh