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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – The leader of the now-defunct Cambodian opposition party was released on bail on Monday after spending a year in prison for treason.
The Phnom Penh City Court said in a statement that Kem Sokha had been released on bail for health reasons. He stressed that the case against him would continue.
In the hours before dawn, he returned to his home in Phnom Penh, where hundreds of supporters rallied later in the morning.
Kem Sokha was arrested last September on the basis of a 2013 video clip showing him at a seminar where he talked about receiving advice from pro-democracy groups in the US. His opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, rejected the allegation of treason, calling it politically motivated.
Last November, another court dissolved the opposition party, claiming that it was plotting with US aid to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country for decades.
Hun Sen has a history of crackdown on enemies when challenged, then improves when the threat is over. Last year's crackdown took place in the form of its Cambodian People's Party seemed vulnerable for this year's polls. The Cambodia National Rescue Party had good results in the 2017 local elections.
Without credible opposition, Hun Sen and his party won the July elections, a vote deemed unfair by much of the international community.
Kem Sokha's predecessor as leader of the opposition, Sam Rainsy, who has been in exile since the end of 2015 to avoid serving a prison sentence for defamation, said on his Facebook page that this publication was only a first step. He said the opposition party should be legalized again and called for new elections, controlled by the international community.
"There has been no justice here, just the temporary release of an opposition political leader that prosecutors could undo at any time," said Phil Robertson, Asia's deputy director for Human Rights Watch, based in New York. "Despite the excitement of today's liberation, we are still far from a true restoration of democracy and respect for human rights in Cambodia."
On August 30, a court extended Kem Sokha's pre-trial detention for six months, disappointing his supporters. They hoped that he could be released because more than 20 people jailed for political activities had been released with pardon or bail. A day earlier, Hun Sen publicly stated that Kem Sokha would not be released and would not be pardoned because he had not yet been sentenced.
-Copyright 2018 The Associated Press
