A United Nations expert group is calling for the immediate release of a Cambodian-American human rights activist, saying an investigation it conducted has concluded she was being “arbitrarily detained in violation of international law.”
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a judgment late on Wednesday that while lawyer Theary Seng had been convicted of conspiracy to commit treason and other charges last year, she was in reality being punished for “making two posts on Facebook critical of Hun Sen,” Cambodia’s autocratic prime minister.
The judgment comes a little more than a week before Cambodia’s general election, in which Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party are virtually guaranteed a landslide victory, since the Candlelight Party, the only other contender capable of mounting a credible challenge, was barred on a technicality from contesting the polls by the National Election Committee.
