Cambodia to deport environmental activist for overstaying: PM
Xinhua, February 23, 2015 Adjust font size:
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday that the country will arrest and deport environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson who refused to leave the country after his visa expired last Friday.
"Cambodia is a sovereign state, which cannot be violated," he said at a graduation ceremony at the National University of Management.
"Undoubtedly, you must leave Cambodia since your visa has expired," he said.
The prime minister also slammed the vice president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, Kem Sokha, for sending a letter to King Norodom Sihamoni requesting his intervention to allow Gonzalez-Davidson to remain in Cambodia.
The government has refused to renew visa for Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of non-governmental organization Mother Nature, because he and his activists last year illegally blocked a road to prevent a government convoy from reaching the site of a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province that they oppose.
The Interior Ministry's General Department of Immigration on Friday sent Gonzalez-Davidson a letter informing him that his visa renewal request was denied. Endi