13 Cambodians jailed in 'concocted' political treason case
PUBLISHED : Friday, 11 April, 2014, 11:18pm
UPDATED : Friday, 11 April, 2014, 11:18pm
Agence France-Presse in Phnom Penh
One of the convicted men yells he is innocent. Photo: AFP
A Cambodian court jailed 13 people for up to nine years yesterday on treason charges denounced by rights campaigners as a "concocted" smear campaign against the opposition.
The accused were convicted of plotting to overthrow the government through their Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), a previously unknown group.
Only seven of the defendants - three of whom were Buddhist monks at the time of their arrest in neighbouring Thailand last year - attended the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for the verdict.
The other six were sentenced in absentia, including KNLF chairman Sam Serey, who lives in Denmark.
Sam Serey was sentenced to nine years in jail, while the others were handed sentences ranging from five to eight years.
"The main goal of the KNLF is to create armed forces to oppose the government," Judge Seng Neang said.
The judge said members of the group, who are not well known in Cambodia, had used anti-government leaflets and planned to explode bombs at state institutions.
The defendants who appeared in court denied the accusations, screaming "No justice!" as they were taken away.
The US-based group Human Rights Watch said on the eve of the verdict that the Cambodian authorities had no credible evidence against the group, describing the charges as "politically motivated".
"Prime Minister Hun Sen announced before last July's elections that a plot to violently overthrow the government had been broken up, seemingly intending to tar the opposition with the brush of violent extremism," HRW Asia director Brad Adams said. "The evidence presented to the court makes clear this plot was concocted."
