Kem Sokha asks court not to link him to Sam Rainsy, demonstration videos

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Former opposition leader Kem Sokha yesterday asked the Phnom Penh Municipal court to stop linking him with Sam Rainsy, his co-founder of the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) with whom he has cut off ties. 

Speaking during his treason case hearing, Sokha also complained that video clips of Rainsy inciting people should not be used as evidence in his case.

He noted that in one 2013 video, Rainsy is seen calling on people, especially workers, to participate in mass demonstrations, in Phnom Penh to change the government through undemocratic ways.

Sokha told the court that he should not be linked to this incitement because, being a non-violent man, he did not agree with Rainsy’s action. 

He said that the video clip, dated December 25, 2013, shows then CNRP president Rainsy grabbing his hand and raising it while informing people at a demonstration that “CNRP is determined to change the (Hun Sen) government.” Rainsy also called for one million Cambodian demonstrators to block main roads in Phnom Penh in December that year. 

Sokha, 67, told the court that at that time he was CNRP vice-president and it Rainsy who grabbed and raised his hand although he did not agree with the party president’s declaration. 

 “I would like to ask the judges, the prosecutors and plaintiff (government) lawyers to stop linking me to Mr Sam Rainsy’s activities or his speeches,” Sokha said. 

“Anything said by Mr Sam Rainsy at that time are not my words. Please ask him about them directly because he was the speaker. I was not the speaker,” he said. 

“At that time I was not satisfied with what he said and did not support him because my political principles or my purpose was to change Cambodian government leaders in a democratic way and through free and fair elections. I do not believe in revolution or violence that leads to bloodshed between Khmer and Khmer,” Sokha said. 

However, Deputy Prosecutor Plong Sophal said that although Sokha tried to disassociate himself from Rainsy and his activities, there is the video clip which shows the accused calling for a colour revolution during a 2013 speech is Australia. 

He noted that the names of foreign states or their agents that Sokha contacted and worked with had already been attached in the investigating judge’s closing order [court’s documentations]. 

Related to his speech in the video clip, Sokha said that it was only “political rhetoric” because he was an opposition politician. 

He added that his real intentions are opposite to his rethoric because he was a non-violent person.  

Sokha is accused of conspiring with foreign states or other foreign agents in order to overthrow the Cambodian government, committed in Cambodian territory and other places, between 1993 and 2017. 

According to court’s documentation, in this case, he is charged with “Conspiracy with Foreign Power” under Article 443 of the Criminal Code. 

If convicted, he faces being jailed from 15 to 30 years.

The trial will continue on July 13.