Theary Seng receives six-year sentence in ongoing mass trial of government critics in Phnom Penh
A prominent Cambodian-American lawyer has been sentenced to six years in jail for treason in anTheary Seng and dozens of activists, many of whom are members of the dissolved opposition group the, were found guilty at Phnom Penh municipal court on Tuesday. The trial is one of four covering nearly 130 defendants, seen by many as prime minister Hun Sen’s attempt to stamp out growing dissent to his 37 years of rule.
As soon as the court delivered the verdict, Seng was dragged into a waiting police vehicle. Members of thePolice officers block relatives of the defendants outside Phnom Penh court, Cambodia, 14 June 2022.for his activities in representing Seng, said the prime minister saw the activist as a “direct threat to his grip on power” ahead of next year’s national elections.
“She wasn’t going to leave, she wasn’t going to go into exile or relent and speak differently about him or the regime,” said Genser. “You can imprison a person, but you can’t imprison an idea. And her idea is a very simple one: the Cambodian people should decide how to be ruled.”that he was “deeply troubled” by the verdict and called on Cambodian authorities “to release her and other human rights activists from unjust imprisonment”.
Local human rights organisations were also quick to condemn the verdict. Chak Sopheap, director or the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said authorities were “instrumentalising the justice system in relentless efforts to silence opponents and critics”. “Nobody should be jailed for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association, no matter how different the opinions they express and the political ideas they defend are from those of the country’s leaders,” said Sopheap. “This never-ending witchhunt against critical voices that the authorities have been leading must cease.”