Interior Ministry files complaint against five banned opposition figures

Mech Dara and Erin Handley | Publication date 15 February 2018 | 12:15 ICT

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Former CNRP leader Sam Rainsy (second left) speaks to supporters about the Cambodia National Rescue Movement with his wife and former lawmaker Tioulong Saumura and former Deputy President Mu Sochua in Houston, Texas, last month. Facebook

The Ministry of Interior has filed a complaint to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court concerning five unnamed former opposition figures, claiming the quintet violated a Supreme Court verdict by continuing to engage in politics.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak this morning confirmed that a complaint was filed last week, but withheld the names.

“We filed a complaint against individuals who have committed activities that violated the Supreme Court verdict that banned them from doing politics – the outstanding individuals who have done the most active and serious activities,” he said.

“They still want to create the desire to topple Cambodia’s legitimate government and they keep the desire to be prime minister.”

The Cambodia National Rescue Party – the country's main opposition and formerly the only legitimate contender to unseat Prime Minister Hun Sen at this year’s national election – was forcibly dissolved by the Supreme Court in November over accusations it was fomenting "revolution". The court also banned 118 of its most senior politicians from participating in politics for five years. Legal amendments rushed through parliament last year by the ruling Cambodian People's Party empowered the Supreme Court to dissolve parties or suspend them for five years, but there is currently no legal provision allowing it to ban individuals from the political sphere.

Last month, some senior members of the opposition, including former party president Sam Rainsy and deputy president Mu Sochua, formed the Cambodia National Rescue Movement (CNRM) in exile. Rainsy has said the movement was established to call for nonviolent protests against the ongoing political crackdown, but he has yet to formally do so.

Sochua today dismissed the Interior Ministry's complaint.

“They can file any law suits they wish to a court that has no trust [of] the people,” she said in a message, before alluding to the 44 percent of the vote the CNRP won in 2013 and again in local elections last year. “The [Supreme Court] decision cannot dictate the will of half a nation that wants positive change.”

Other former opposition figures did not immediately respond to requests for comment.