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Cambodian FM explains arrest warrant for opposition leader to foreign diplomats

Xinhua, November 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Thursday explained the arrest warrant for country's opposition leader Sam Rainsy to foreign diplomats to Cambodia, saying that the warrant was "not politically motivated".

"I informed the foreign diplomats that the arrest warrant for Sam Rainsy is not a dispute between the (opposition) party and the (ruling) party--it is not politically motivated," he told reporters after the meeting.

He said the warrant was issued in an individual dispute between Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), and him.

Sam Rainsy accused Hor Namhong of serving for the former Democratic Kampuchea in a speech at the Choeung Ek Museum in Phnom Penh on April 17, 2008. In the same year, Hor Namhong filed a defamation lawsuit at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against Sam Rainsy.

In 2011, the court convicted him in absentia on the charge and sentenced him to two years in prison, and in 2013, the Appeal Court upheld the lower court's conviction. Since then, Sam Rainsy has not served his prison term yet.

"In a democratic country, people have rights to express their views, but if their views affect others, the others also have rights to complain," said Hor Namhong, who is also a deputy prime minister.

Last week, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued the arrest warrant for Sam Rainsy, who is currently in self-imposed exile abroad, over the defamation conviction.

On Monday, National Assembly President Heng Samrin announced in a statement that Sam Rainsy has completely lost his "right, privilege and membership as a lawmaker" in the fifth mandate after the court issued the arrest warrant for him.

Sam Rainsy, who also holds French citizenship, returned to Cambodia ahead of the July 2013 national election after receiving a royal pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni. He had fled the country in 2009 to avoid an 11-year prison sentence over the charges of removing border poles and publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam. The pardon at that time did not include the defamation conviction.

In the 2013 election, his CNRP received 55 seats against 68 seats for the Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in the 123-seat parliament. Enditem