EX-CNRP Commune Chief Ms. Kem Tola Jailed over Incitement

 


Buth Reaksmey Kongkea 

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday jailed a former commune chief of the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) after she was arrested while trying to flee the country on Sunday.

 She had been at large when the court on August 10 had sentenced her in absentia to 18 months in jail for incitement committed over Facebook between 2018 and 2021. 

Anti-Terrorism and Transnational Crime Police Officer Lieutenant Colonel Long Bunsong yesterday identified her as Kem Tola, 36, a former chief of Treng Rayoeng commune in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Srouch district.

Lt Col. Bunsong said that the accused was arrested in accordance with the court’s arrest warrant. 

“She was arrested on Sunday afternoon while she attempted to flee to Germany by taking a flight at the Phnom Penh International Airport,” he said.

He added that after her arrest she was sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court which ordered her to serve out her sentence. 

Tola’s lawyer Ket Khy said yesterday that his client’s arrest as well as her absentia conviction by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court was injustice because it was the same offence for which she had served out a jail sentence imposed by the Kampong Speu Provincial Court last year. 


Khy said that Kampong Speu Provincial Court sentenced Tola to a year in prison on the incitement charge but this was reduced to three months following an appeal. 

He added that since her release, Tola had never been involved with former opposition leader Sam Rainsy or other former CNRP officials living in exile abroad. 

“After her arrest, my client appealed to the court to drop the jail sentence and conduct her trial again because she was innocent,” Khy said. “She has also appealed to Court of Appeal because the Phnom Penh Municipal Court had charged and jailed her for the same offence that the Kampong Speu Provincial Court had punished her for. 

Both Investigating Judge Khun Sona and Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s Spokesman Plong Sophal could not be reached for comment yesterday.

 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia Attends the 13th World Swimming Championship in Italy

BY BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA The six Cambodian delegates will leave for the 13th World Swimming Championship, scheduled over nine days from the July 25 to August 2, 2009 in Rome, Italy. The delegates will depart on July 21. Their number will include two national male swimmers and a couple of female junior swimmers. They will be supported by one coach and one member of the sport’s governing body. The World Swimming Championship is organized by the International Amateur Swimming Federation (IASF), which was founded in the 1950s, according to Hem Thon, National Coach and Secretary General of the Khmer Amateur Swimming Federation (KASF). He also said that 115 countries besides Cambodia would send swimmers to Italy to take part in the competition. “This is the third year that Cambodia has sent a swimming team to the World Swimming Championships. We are looking forward to competing with the best swimmers in the world and hopefully winning a couple of medals for our country. It is also be a great...
Read more

Chan Tra: Life of a Cambodian Traditional Tattoo Artist

BY BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA Among tattooists in Cambodia, Chan Tra, 46, is the only tattoo artist to retain the ability to ink a wide range of subjects in different styles. His modern counterparts are limited in their repertoire in comparison. His subjects include the human form, birds and abstract patterns. Chan Tra is now an expert in drawing Ankor Wat on the skin of foreign clients, thus turning them into walking, talking promotional materials for Cambodia’s tourist sector. Chan Tra was born in 1963 in Sihanouk province and has two sons and one daughter. He is an orphaned and a Survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. He lost his entire family during the years of terror between 1975 and 1979. “I have loved drawing and painting ever since I was a child and practised my art every day before the arrival of the Pol Pot regime. Consequently, I like the art of tattooing and it makes a solid source of income to keep my wife and kids happy,” he told The Southeast Asia Weekly during a personal i...
Read more

TV5 Selects Freshie Girls and Boys 2009

BY BUTH REAKSMEY KONGKEA Ten Cambodian teenagers, five girls and five boys, were selected as “Cambodian Freshie Girls and Boys” for 2009. The “Freshie Girls and Boys” competition took place on March 30 at the TV5’s station in Phnom Penh and was organized by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ Television Channel 5 (TV5). Bun Kert, Director of the “Freshie Girls and Boys Organizational Committee” of the TV5, said more than 1,000 Cambodian youth applied for the competition, but through many different phases of the competition, only 20 girls and boys who reached the final round on March 30. He said the main objective of the competition is to promote and encourage Cambodian young people to show their personal abilities and skills and knowledge in order to become a future leader, good speaker or TV hosts in Cambodia. “This is the eighth “Freshie Girls and Boys” competition organized by TV5 in Phnom Penh. The main purpose of the competition is to select the freshie girls and boys for Cambodia i...
Read more