Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday rejected opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s attempt to condemn rumours concerning the parentage of the premier’s son, Hun Manet, calling the self-exiled leader a fugitive “convict”.

Speaking to Fresh News, Hun Sen said Rainsy’s letter, which he sent two days ago, was to be ignored and that he had no intention to speak with the opposition leader. “I do not have time and it is not necessary to talk with a convict who is escaping from the net of the law abroad,” Hun Sen said.

Rainsy had sent the prime minister the letter calling the rumours that Manet was not Hun Sen’s legitimate son “immoral behaviour”, and saying he shared in the suffering caused to the family.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan, however, alleged that Rainsy’s letter in fact insulted the premier, given that he had misspelled the prime minister’s honorific, “samdech”.

He added that Rainsy’s letter was only an attempt to get leniency in his own legal battles. “Rainsy is using it to excuse him from the actions of the court.”

In May, the CNRP terminated the membership of overseas activist Yorng Noy, who also goes by Brady Young, for making the same accusations about Manet on social media.

Yesterday Young, in a video on Facebook, offered to return to Cambodia to face action for his comments, but only on the condition that jailed activists be released.

Siphan dismissed the suggestion yesterday, calling it a “mockery” of the Cambodian court system.