Former opposition leader Kem Sokha appeals set



Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

The Phnom Penh Appeal Court will hold the appeal hearing of former leader Kem Sokha of the court-dissolved Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) on January 30, who last year was sentenced by the lower court to 27 years in prison on the charge of collusion with foreigners. 

Khun Leangmeng, the judge and also spokesman at the Phnom Penh Appeal Court, told Khmer Times yesterday that some of Sokha’s lawyers have also been summoned by the Phnom Penh Appeal Court to attend Sokha’s hearing. 

However, judge Leangmeng declined to provide further details. 

According to court documents, Kem Sokha, 70, was sentenced on March 3 last year by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to 27 years in prison on the charge of collusion with foreigners committed in Cambodia and other countries between 1993 and 2017.

The municipal court also banned him from political activity and meeting anyone apart from family members.

Meng Sopheary, one of Sokha’s co-lawyers said yesterday that she and her colleagues met once with Sokha last year to prepare and file his appeal.

She added that further contact with Sokha is prohibited due to the third point of the verdict of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court which restricts contact with the defendant to his relatives.

“Kem Sokha’s legal team have not yet received any summons from the Phnom Penh Appeal Court for the hearing,” Sopheary told Khmer Times yesterday.

“In order to defend Kem Sokha, who we defended at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, we need to have a letter from the defendant requesting legal assistance, so we can perform our duties in accordance with the law,” she said.

“But so far we haven’t received the defendant letter from him,” she said, adding that “Although Kem Sokha may have other requests for legal assistance, we have difficulties working with him because there is no freedom to communicate with him,” she said.

Ang Udom, another of Sokha’s lawyers, said that no lawyer has yet been appointed to defend Sokha at the Phnom Penh Appeal Court hearing.

He said that the fate of Sokha is now in the hands of the court.

He added that the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentence handed to Sokha was unjust and violated both Cambodian and international laws because Sokha had not broken any law.

END


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