Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy, centre, faces arrest if he returns to his country as early as Monday Photo: AP

Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy faces arrest

Sydney Morning Herald | 15 November 2015

Lindsay Murdoch

Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy faces arrest if he returns to his country as early as Monday, plunging the impoverished south-east Asia country back into political conflict.

The regime of strongman prime minister Hun Sen has forced Mr Sam Rainsy to choose whether to stay abroad or return and be jailed for two years on a seven-year-old politically motivated defamation charge.

Tens of thousands of supporters packed the streets of the capital Phnom Penh in 2013 when Mr Sam Rainsy returned from exile to fight an election campaign that his party claimed was marred by widespread vote rigging. 

Analysts say his arrest now would likely spark anti-government protests as the United States warned at the weekend of a "deteriorating political climate" in the country.

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A Cambodian court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Mr Sam Rainsy over an unserved defamation sentence from 2011, a day after Mr Hun Sen threatened him with legal action after comments made by the opposition leader in Japan.

Mr Sam Rainsy had urged Mr Hun Sen, Asia's longest-ruling leader, to move towards a peaceful exit from power.

In a Facebook posting on Saturday, a defiant Mr Sam Rainsy wrote that the "wind of freedom that is blowing throughout the world will also reach Cambodia in the very near future," a reference to last Sunday's landslide election victory by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in neighbouring Myanmar.

Mr Sam Rainsy has not made clear whether he intends to return to the country this week from a two-week three-nation tour. [He has!  He told the packed crowd in South Korea and gave an interview to RFI saying he will return as scheduled.]

Mr Hun Sen, a former commander of the murderous Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, has often brutally crushed political rivals during three decades in power.

Eng Chhay Eang, a spokesman for Mr Sam Rainsy's Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), criticised the arrest warrant as a "joke" and said his leader "could return."

"The ruling party leader is again and again cracking down on our party but, in return, it makes our party gain more support, grow stronger and sees our members unite more and more," Mr Chhay Eang said.

Mr Hun Sen, who is due to feted by Australia during an official visit early next year, has repeatedly denounced Mr Sam Rainsy, and threatened to have him prosecuted, as the strongman stepped up attacks on the CNRP during the past several weeks.

In late October two opposition MPs were viciously attacked outside parliament and days later deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha was removed from his post on what observers described as dubious legal grounds.

Mr Hun Sen condemned the attacks but the culprits have not been arrested despite video footage showing some of their faces.

Since a truce reached in June between Mr Hun Sen and Mr Sam Rainsy recently collapsed, the strongman has been warning that victory for the opposition at elections scheduled for 2018 would see a return to civil war in the country.

Human Rights Watch has called on Cambodia's donor countries, including Australia, to press authorities in Phnom Penh drop the case against Mr Sam Rainsy and for Mr Hun Sen to end his repeated use of criminal laws against political opponents.

Australia has moved closer to Cambodia since last year's controversial $55 million agreement to bring refugees from Nauru to settle permanently in the country.

The agreement has faltered with only four refugees agreeing to make the move, despite promises of thousands of dollars, luxury accommodation and other benefits.

The defamation case relates to comments Mr Sam Rainsy made in 2008 alleging that foreign minister Hor Namhong was implicated in crimes at a Khmer Rouge camp in the late 1970s.

Mr Hor Namhong denied the claims, saying he was a prisoner and victim of the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni pardoned Mr Sam Rainsy on what he described as other trumped-up charges in 2013, allowing him to return from exile weeks later.

However, the pardon did not mention the Hor Namhong case.

Phay Sipan, a government spokesman, denied that politics was behind the warrant, which officials said they would serve on Mr Sam Rainsy if he arrives in the country.

"It's a personal problem between Sam Rainsy and Hor Namhong ... it has nothing to do with politics, Hun Sen or the government," Mr Phay Sipan said.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the actions against Mr Sam Rainsy expose the absurdity of Cambodia's legal system which "seems to serve little more than Hun Sen's tool to maintain power."

"He will fool no-one by dredging up this case now," he said.