A week after Cambodian authorities barred the country’s main opposition party from taking part in national elections in July, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen again criticized Western diplomats and accused them of supporting detained opposition leader Kem Sokha.
The former leader of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has been ensnared in politically confected legal troubles since his arrest in September 2017 on charges of treason. In March of this year, after a drawn-out trial and long spell in a high-security prison, he was finally sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In a speech at the inauguration of a tire factory in Sihanoukville yesterday, Hun Sen lashed out at the “backstabbing” diplomats who he accused of secretly supporting Sokha.
