Two released by police after KNLF crackdown

KNLF member Thuy Vy is escorted by officials after questioning at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Pha Lina

Fri, 19 May 2017

Chhay Channyda

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Two people arrested for their alleged links to the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF) were released yesterday, while another member of the group remains in custody, a police official said.

Police made the initial arrests on Tuesday after interrupting a press conference being held by the KNLF. The government considers it a terrorist group and has arrested numerous alleged members, though it has never produced evidence that the dissident group has violent aims.

The host of the press conference self-proclaimed “Inter-Racialism High Commissioner” Savak Khit – was also taken into custody after accompanying two alleged members of the KNLF, Thuy Vy and Lim Sophea, to the police station.

According to Municipal Deputy Police Chief Sim Vuthy, Khit and Sophea were freed yesterday – after being “educated” – because they were found not to be members of the KNLF.

However, Khit, he added, had “opened an illegal NGO”. Vy had admitted being a KNLF member, Vuthy said, noting that police had handed the case over to prosecutors. Vy was preliminarily accused of incitement.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Deputy Prosecutor Sieng Sok yesterday said that Vy “is being questioned by the office of the prosecution” and that questioning would continue today.

The KNLF is an obscure group that claims to have a parallel government waiting to replace the ruling CPP based on opposing what they see as Vietnamese neocolonialism under Prime Minister Hun Sen.