Kem Sotha Trial Postponed After Lawyer Gets Covid-19

 


Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday postponed the hearing of former Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Kem Sokha because a government’s lawyer coming down with Covid-19.

Presiding Judge Koy Sao confirmed yesterday that the hearing had to be postponed after the lawyer tested positive for the disease.

He added that Sokha’s hearing will be resume on February 16 morning.

Sann Chuoy, one of the government’s lawyers, said that on February 5, one of his colleagues Cheng Penghap went for check up at Preah Keto Mealea Hospital in Phnom Penh.

He said Penghap was then diagnosed with Covid-19.

Chuoy said that prior to this Penghap had met to discuss the case with a group of government lawyers.

He added that the other lawyers were now in quarantine and he had asked Judge Sao to postpone the hearing to next week in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

One of Sokha’s lawyers Heng Pheng told Khmer Times yesterday that the postponement or prolongation of the trial has affected Sokha’s judicial process and his rights because so far he has been waiting for justice for four years.


However, Pheng said that the case will not be delayed for long because there are other government lawyers who can substitute for him.

Sokha, 67, is charged with “Conspiracy with Foreign Power” under Article 443 of the Criminal Code.

If convicted, he is faces between 15 and 30 years in prison.

He was arrested on September 3, 2017 and accused of conspiracy and having a secret agreement with a foreign state or its agents with a view to fomenting hostilities or acts of aggression to go against the Kingdom of Cambodia committed in Cambodian territory and other places, between 1993 and 2017.

His arrest followed a video clip in which he confessed in 2013 in Australia that he was following orders from the US to overthrow the government just like the way it was done in the former Yugoslavia.






 

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