Opposition leader Sam Rainsy defies jail threat to 'rescue' Cambodia

 Sydney Morning Herald | 16 November 2015

Cambodian civil servants participate in the Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last week. Photo: AP

Bangkok:  Cambodia's opposition leader Sam Rainsy has declared that for the sake of his nation he will return to Phnom Penh despite facing a two year jail sentence on a politically motivated defamation charge.

"Cambodia is my homeland – I absolutely must go back and go to rescue our nation", Mr Rainsy told a group of Cambodians in South Korea.

"So there is no change in my plan … if I must die, let it be," he said in comments reported by the Phnom Penh Post.

Sam Rainsy, leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), in Phnom Penh in August. Photo: AP

Mr Rainsy survived an assassination attempt in 1997 that killed at least 16 of his supporters.

Cambodian police have confirmed they intend to arrest Mr Rainsy when he is scheduled to arrive in Phnom Penh on a Korean Air flight early on Tuesday morning, Australian time.

The arrest of the long-time foe of Cambodia's strongman prime minister Hun Sen is likely to spark anti-government protests after weeks of rising tensions across the country.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni waves to well-wishers at Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh last week. Photo: AP

Officials of Mr Rainsy's Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) say he plans to ask authorities not to arrest him when he touches down, and allow him to negotiate with the country's powerful Interior Minister Sar Kheng.

MPs of Mr Rainsy's party have been told to remain in Phnom Penh ahead of his arrival.

"All of them must stay together … first for safety in case a bad incident takes places and second to join any urgent decision-making," said party spokesman Eng Chhay Eang.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni waves to students during the Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh last week. Photo: AP

A Cambodian court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Mr 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 Rainsy had urged Mr Hun Sen, Asia's longest-ruling leader, to move towards a peaceful exit from power.

In a Facebook posting last Saturday, a defiant Mr 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.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's son Hun Many at the Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh last week. Photo: AP

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.

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.

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

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

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni pardoned Mr Rainsy on what the opposition leader 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.

Hundreds 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.