Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday sentenced two opposition activists for disseminating false information, but dropped a charge that they defamed Prime Minister Hun Sen during the election campaign.
Presiding Judge Kim Sorphon said the court found Sam Rainsy Party activists Nou Sath and Seng Sokha, both 35, guilty of distributing leaflets that contained misleading and libelous information.
“But the charge of defamation is dropped due to the nonexistence of a victim’s complaint,” Kim Sorphon added.
The leaflets included a photo of victims of the 1997 grenade attack on an opposition rally and another of police beating monks during a demonstration against the 1998 election results. On the reverse side is a list of seven points attacking Hun Sen’s rule since 1979.
With time served, Nou Sath will have satisfied his six-month sentence by mid-November. Seng Sokha, tried in absentia, was sentenced to six months’ probation.
The suspects’ lawyers rejected all charges, claiming their clients were completely innocent because everything contained in the leaflets was true. They argued that numerous sources had made the information available to the public before it appeared in the leaflets.
“The information is true and has been published throughout the country,” Seng Sokha’s lawyer Ket Khy said. “There was no turmoil then.”
Both of the defendants’ lawyers lashed out against the defamation charge, which was based on a complaint lodged by a CPP commune chief unhappy with the leaflet’s attack on Hun Sen.
In his concluding remarks, Prosecutor Khut Sopheang argued that the charge was valid because the defendants “defamed a public individual’s reputation.”
In response, Seng Sokha said that what was mentioned in the leaflet was true and the public already knew it.
