Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld a three-year prison sentence handed down last year to Thach Setha, a senior leader of the country’s embattled opposition, for “inciting” social chaos.
The longtime opposition figure was in October sentenced to prison on charges of discrimination and incitement for remarks about the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument and the January 7 holiday, which marks Vietnam's 1979 overthrow of the Pol Pot regime.
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Thach Setha was filmed meeting with Cambodian workers in South Korea and discussing Vietnam's 1979 invasion of Cambodia, which replaced the Khmer Rouge with a new communist regime that later became the currently ruling Cambodian People's Party, or CPP.
Following the Supreme Court’s upholding of the sentence Friday, Thach Setha’s wife, Thach Sokborany, told reporters her husband had done nothing except exercise his right to freedom of expression.
“The court officials sleep comfortably under the air conditioner, their children go to good schools, so I ask why do they not pity us?” Thach Sokborany said. “Are they happy? I am in so much pain every day.”
Thach Setha also had a heart condition and high blood pressure, she added, and was not getting adequate care in an overcrowded prison.
‘Intimidation’ of opposition activists
Thach Setha was already in prison when his three-year sentence was handed down in October, having previously been sentenced to 18 months behind bars in January 2023 for writing bad checks – a charge his lawyer argued lacked evidence and was politically motivated.
But an appeal against that verdict was denied in May this year.
Thach Setha's arrest came in the lead-up to the July 2023 national election, from which his Candlelight Party was excluded on dubious administrative grounds. It marked the second successive national election in Cambodia without an independent opposition party.
The septuagenarian had served as the Candlelight Party’s vice president, and its exclusion allowed the CPP to win nearly all the seats in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Hun Sen then handed over power to his son, Hun Manet, in the month following the vote.
Repression of the Candlelight Party has continued under Hun Manet’s government, though, with three party activists reportedly arrested Thursday in Takeo, Kampong Cham and Battambang provinces.
A party statement urged authorities to release the activists and to stop “intimidating” others, noting a recent campaign of harassment.
At least one of the activists was arrested for incitement to commit crimes, according to a statement from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, but a court spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Alex Willemyns.