Police Dismiss Post-Poll Intimidation Claims ChargCharges

A National Police investigation into allegations of intimidation of Sam Rainsy Party workers in Takeo has yielded no evidence to uphold the complaints, a new report on the inquiry claims.

Furthermore, the police report alleges, the majority of the complaints were not brought by the supposed victims themselves, but were filed on their behalf by more senior party workers.

The report, signed by National Police Director-General Hok Lun­dy, also seeks to dismiss opposition claims that frightened party workers came to the capital in droves to escape intimidation. Instead, it says most came to solicit money from the party in return for their work.

In one case, involving alleged threats made to 18 party workers, activist An Som is cited as saying he never received any threats, but was merely notified of them by another party member. Intimidation charges filed by 17 other members were also ba­sed on hearsay, the report said.

Several others apparently told police they had never filed the com­plaints that were made in their name. In one case, an acti­vist said he had told police he had been beaten up in a fight, but de­nied the incident was politically motivated.

In a report released two weeks after the elections, the UN hu­man rights office said it had re­ceived no complaints of post-election killings, but had interviewed 75 people who claimed to have been subjected to intimidation and violence.

A Sam Rainsy Party spokes­man dismissed the re­port as “a show for the international community,” which has re­pea­tedly urged the government to in­vestigate cases of alle­gedly politically motivated crimes to break what it has called Cambodia’s “culture of impunity.”

 

 

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