Kem Sokha’s defence team outside of Phnom Penh municipal court following the February 2 hearing. Hong Menea
Kem Sokha’s treason trial continued on February 2, with his defence team presenting video clips aimed at exonerating him during the half-day hearing. The trial is set to resume on February 9.
The former leader of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was charged with conspiracy with a foreign power to topple the government in 2017. His hearing resumed on January 19 following lengthy delays due to Covid-19.
Speaking to the media after the hearing, Sokha’s defence team said six video clips out of a total of 18 were played, most of which were from a speech he had made to protesting factory workers.
Meng Sopheary, one of the defence lawyers, said the hearing was the 29th session of Sokha’s trial.
The trial did not hear arguments from defence lawyers or prosecutors, but was used to present some of the evidence that had been submitted. The team have submitted 18 video clips and 28 hardcopy documents, she noted.
“In the video clips that were played this morning, we showed the court that our client as well as his former party – the CNRP – had always adhered to non-violent principles. Sokha and the CNRP did not have any intent to carry out a colour revolution or topple the government as claimed, but merely to contest the election,” she said.
Sopheary claimed that Sokha had always urged the Cambodian people to register for elections and choose leaders according to their will – in accordance with the Constitution – not through a colour revolution.
She said the CNRP did not organise the protests outside the former Freedom Park. And the violent protests on Veng Sreng Street in Phnom Penh and at Kizuna Bridge in Kampong Cham province that followed the 2013 general election were organised by workers who were demanding their owed salaries. Sokha, she noted, had joined the Kampong Cham protest in his role as a lawmaker for the province.
Prosecutor Phlong Sophal said briefly that the court will resume the hearing on the morning of February 9.
Rong Chhun – head of the Cambodia Watchdog Council and president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions – observed the trial outside the court and called for Sokha’s release so that he could contest the upcoming election.
