Judiciary
A Cambodian Court has sentenced a 70-year-old barber to serve seven months in prison for a Facebook post in which he insulted the King, a Court Spokesman said on Friday.
It makes him the first person convicted under Cambodia’s new lese-majesty law.
The Siem Reap provincial court sentenced Ban Samphy on Thursday to the minimum sentence of one year in prison, but would only require him to serve seven months, court spokesman, Yin Srang, told dpa.
Samphy was detained in May after authorities saw he had shared a Facebook post in which King Norodom Sihamoni was compared unfavourably to former kings.
The post showed photos of the king and Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife, first lady Bun Rany, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Friday.
Samphy, a former district deputy party leader of the outlawed main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was the second of two men to be arrested under Cambodia’s lese-majesty law.
The law was passed in February, prompting rights advocates to raise concerns about the potential for it to be used to silence dissent.
Schoolteacher Kheang Navy, 50, was arrested about a week before Samphy because of a Facebook post in which he blamed the king for the court-ordered dissolution of the CNRP last year.
In July, Hun Sen’s ruling party won all 125 parliamentary seats in an election marked by the absence of the CNRP, seen as the ruling party’s only serious challenger.
Human Rights Watch called Samphy and Navy political prisoners in a statement in September. (Dpa/NAN)
– Oct. 5, 2018 @ 13:12 GMT |
Tags: Cambodian Court sentences first person under royal insult law
