Activist who threw shoe at PM’s image freed after serving time

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

A former CNRP activist was released from prison on Wednesday after having served outher sentence for insulting government leaders and throwing a shoe at a Cambodian People’s Party billboard showing the images of Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly President Heng Samrin in 2017. 

Kampong Speu provincial prison officer Major Bun Heng yesterday identified her as  Sam Sokha, 42, who was a garment worker living in the province’s Phnom Srouch district. 

Maj. Heng said that Sokha was sentenced by Kampong Speu Provincial Court to two years in prison in 2017.

He added that she was charged with two counts of “insulting and inciting to discriminate” and was arrested on February 9, 2018. 

“She was released on Wednesday from Kampong Speu Provincial Prison after she had served her two-year prison term,” Maj. Heng told Khmer Times. “She has already left for home to meet her family.”

 Sam Sokha could not be contacted for comment yesterday.  

According to court’s documentation, Sokha, who was a CNRP’s activist, threw a shoe at a Cambodian People’s Party billboard showing the images of Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly President Heng Samrin in Preah Sihanouk province on April 1, 2017. 

Sokha then fled to Thailand and worked as a migrant labourer in Bangkok.

She was later arrested on February 8, 2018 by Thai police for illegal staying and working in Thailand. She was re patriated to Cambodian authorities the next day.

Cambodian police arrested her and sent to her to serve the term of her two-year jail term handed to her in absentia by Kampong Speu Provincial Court. 

After her arrest, Sokha asked the provincial court to conduct a retrial and asked it to reduce her sentence and the fine. 

On January 16, 2019, after the retrial, the court upheld her two-year sentence. Sokha appealed to Appeal Court which also upheld it on June 2, 2019.

 On January 22, last year her final appeal was also rejected by the Supreme Court.

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         


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