Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy yesterday said that, contrary to his speech before the National Assembly last week, the Kingdom’s political crisis would not be resolved as long as opposition activists were still being harassed by the courts.

If there are still CNRP members who are in jail, Rainsy told reporters in Daun Penh district yesterday, “and there are [members] being followed to provoke them, it means that the political crisis has not ended”.

Rainsy maintained that he would ensure that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party respected the spirit of the agreement under which the opposition finally entered parliament, but didn’t elaborate.

The comments come as three party activists sit in jail on charges over a violent protest last month, and days after two more activists and a party official were issued summonses related to the same protest.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that the actions were “the order of the court”, but political analyst Kem Ley called them part of a strategy to defend the CPP’s “interests” and to weaken the CNRP’s attempts at reform.