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| Hun Manet talks to the media at the Phnom Penh airport in April after returning from the US. Pha Lina |
Hun Manet hires law firm to battle US suit brought by family of jailed activist
Phnom Penh Post | 24 August 2016
Hun Manet has hired a law firm to
contest a lawsuit that has been brought against him in the US by the family of
an opposition activist imprisoned in Cambodia.
According to court
documents, Lieutenant General Manet, eldest son of Prime Minister Hun Sen,
plans to appear at a hearing in California scheduled for September 1 in a bid
to have the case dismissed, and will be represented by John Purcell, of Los
Angeles-based law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
In a complaint
lodged April 8 at the US District Court Central District of California, the
family of Cambodia National Rescue Party official Meach Sovannara – who is also
a US citizen – accused Manet, head of the Defence Ministry’s anti-terrorism
unit, of wrongful imprisonment amounting
to torture.
The suit, which
also names the Cambodian government as a defendant, relates to the opposition member’s imprisonment for “incitement” over a 2014
anti-government protest at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh that turned violent.
Sovannara yesterday appealed the verdict.
The city is also
where process server Paul Hayes attempted to serve Manet with a summons for the
case during a US tour by the scion earlier this year.
The April 9
incident outside La Lune restaurant, which resulted in Hayes’ alleged assault by Manet’s bodyguards as he tried to approach their boss,
now forms a core component of arguments by both parties as to what the court
should do next.
In a motion of
dismissal, Manet’s attorney Purcell argues Hayes failed to properly serve his
client, but also further contends the court does not have any other grounds for
personal jurisdiction over Manet.
Purcell points to
Hayes’s recollection in his affidavit that he was about “5 to 10 feet” from
Manet, extending the papers in his left hand and calling “General Manet,
General Manet”, when he was grabbed and prevented from delivering the documents
to his target.
“Manet was never
served (or even informed of the lawsuit) by the process server,” it reads.
In a declaration
filed with the court, Manet also claims he was unaware he was being served and
had rushed into the bathroom to wash his face after pepper spray was dispersed
over the crowd, which included anti-government protesters.
Sovannara’s team,
meanwhile, intends to ask the court to assess issues surrounding whether the
case can be heard via “jurisdictional discovery” proceedings.
In particular, they
suggest Manet, via his bodyguards, “unlawfully acted to interfere” with Hayes’s
service through a “violent physical assault on the process server”, and say
this requires “further exploration”.
Their motion claims
to have video and photographic evidence showing Manet was served by Hayes,
whose assault is being investigated by police.
US-based attorney
Morton Sklar, who represents Sovannara’s family, said, if granted, the motion
would open the Cambodian government to “very probing questions”.
But in a
counter-motion, Manet’s lawyer calls the request a “waste of the court’s time”.
“The plaintiffs’
speculation about a scheme to prevent service is ‘little more than a hunch’ and
is insufficient reason to put Manet to the cost and inconvenience of answering
to the Plaintiff’s fishing expedition.”
Manet could not be
reached.
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