Son Chhay Found Guilty of Defaming NEC and CPP

 

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea 

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on October 7, 2022 found Candlelight Party vice-president Son Chhay guilty of defamation and ordered him to pay over $750,000 over allegations made concerning the June Commune Election. 

The National Election Committee (NEC) and Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) sued him over the criticism that the election was not independently held in a free and fair manner. 

He was ordered to pay a fine of 9 million riel (about $2,500) in the NEC suit and ordered to pay 3,000 million riel (about $750,000) to the CPP.

Chhay was found to have defamed both parties by saying describing the preliminary commune election results as “not reflecting the true will of the people” and the NEC was “not independent in conducting the June 5 election”.

Judge Ham Mengse said that Chhay, 66, was charged with “Public Defamation” under Article 305 of the Criminal Code. 

He said the accused was sued by the NEC and the CPP’s lawyers after he had made the defamatory remarks in an interview by Cambodia Daily on June 7 in which he had also alleged that “there are ballots theft”. 

Judge Mengse said Chhay was also ordered to issue public apologies to both the NEC and CPP to be published for eight days by any newspaper. 

Son Chhay’s lawyer Chhuong Chungy said yesterday that the court’s judgment was unjust for his client because he had only criticised irregularities in the election and was exercising his freedom of his expression and his advocacy as a politician in demanding for a reform in the NEC.

 Chungy also claimed that his client did not harm any NEC’s leaders or its honour.

“My client had spoken in general about irregularities in the 2020 commune council elections. He did not allege that NEC had committed fraud or stolen the ballots,” he told Khmer Times yesterday. “When speaking to the Cambodia Daily journalist Taing Sarada at that time, he had just raised the issue of irregularities in the election so that the NEC will be aware and solve it for the future commune elections.”

Chungy said that his client did not agree with the court’s verdict and would seek redress from the Appeal Court.

He added that his client had now left the country for a short time.

He said that Son Chhay’s defamation case is politically motivated.  So it should be solved by the political mechanism, it is not solved by the court’s system.

NEC’s spokesman Dim Sovannarom could not be reached for comment yesterday.

However, according to the NEC’s press release dated Friday and obtained yesterday by Khmer Times, the decision of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court provided justice for the commission.

 “Through this decision of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, NEC has really been exonerated and the honour and dignity of a national institution has been restored,” the press release said. 

During the hearing on Friday, Som Sorida, NEC secretary-general testified that the 2022  election was considered by the commission as well as national and international observers and other friendly countries in the region  as “a better one” among previous commune elections in Cambodia or in the region.   

Sorida said the 2022 commune election was conducted freely, fairly transparently and credibly, and had reflected the will of more than 80% of voters.