Cambodian government using courts as weapon against opposition parties, critics say
Facing prison over an alleged sex scandal, he says he is the latest target of a government which is using the courts as a weapon to pick off its main rivals ahead of elections in 2018.
My political struggle here is like a strike in order to demand the situation return to normal...so that we can prepare free and fair elections
Although nominally a democracy, Cambodia has been ruled for 31-years by shrewd, pugnacious strongman Hun Sen, whose political machinations crescendo with election cycles.
Ever since the blustering premier nearly lost his office in 2013, rights groups say he has been on a warpath to dismantle the opposition, using pliant courts as a stick to beat his foes.
Last year, old charges were dusted off against top opposition leader Sam Rainsy, sending the Paris-educated politician into self-imposed overseas exile for the third time in a decade.
That left his deputy Kem Sokha to run the show – until a sex scandal in May forced the 63-year-old to hole-up in the party’s Phnom Penh headquarters to avoid arrest.
