Cambodian police hunt for opposition leader Kem Sokha, waylay his car

Armed security forces raided the headquarters of Cambodia’s main opposition party and surrounded the car of its No. 2 leader on Thursday in an apparent attempt to apprehend him, but left empty-handed after not finding him in either place, witnesses and officials said.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said on his Facebook page that police entered the Cambodian National Rescue Party headquarters looking for his deputy, Kem Sokha. A little while earlier, policemen wearing flak jackets and brandishing guns had stopped Kem Sokha’s white SUV on a Phnom Penh street.

“I can only confirm to you that Kem Sokha’s car was surrounded by police with guns,” party spokesman Yim Sovann said. “I think ... they want to arrest him,” he said. He declined to say where Kem Sokha was.

Kem Sokha in recent weeks has ignored several court summonses to answer questions over defamation complaints, one by his alleged lover, a hairdresser.

The raid came hours after Sam Rainsy criticised the government’s plan to hold elections next year. He said the polls would be neither free nor fair since Prime Minister Hun Sen has thrown several opposition members and rights activists in jail.

“Taking full advantage of its control over the judiciary, which it blatantly uses as a tool for political repression, the government gets an increasing number of its opponents and critics – including leaders and members of the civil society – arrested and jailed on fallacious charges,” wrote Sam Rainsy, who is in self-imposed exile because he fears being arrested.