[Vietnamization: border] Jail term over Facebook post

Jail term over Facebook post

AFP / The Hong Kong Standard | 28 Dec. 2016

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday over a post on his Facebook page, a conviction that makes his return from self-imposed exile unlikely.

The conviction caps a major crackdown this year on critics of the country's strongman leader Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has run Cambodia for more than three decades often with the help of pliant courts.

Activists say Hun Sen is trying to keep his opponents under pressure ahead of regional elections next year and a general election in 2018.

Scores of opposition politicians and rights group workers have been jailed or seen legal cases filed against them in recent months.

Rainsy, who now lives in France, was convicted in absentia by Phnom Penh's Municipal Court yesterday for a post placed on his Facebook page by a third party about Cambodia's border with Vietnam, a highly contentious issue in the country.

Anti-Vietnamese sentiment runs high in Cambodia and parts of the border are still disputed. Hun Sen's critics accuse him of being too close to Vietnam, a charge he denies.