Cambodian opposition leader found guilty of defamation

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH

Exiled Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy was found guilty of defamation Tuesday for accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of buying fake “likes” to boost his Facebook page.

The Cambodia Daily said Rainsy was fined $2,500 by the judge, and that the verdict would be broadcast for three days.

The announcement is the latest in a string of cases against Rainsy and the second Facebook-related conviction to be handed out by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court this week.

On Monday, a senator from Rainsy’s old party was jailed for seven years for posting a video containing a falsified border treaty on the social media site.

The case was filed against Rainsy in March by Sam Soeun, deputy head of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) Cabinet, who said Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Rainsy had defamed him by posting a screengrab of instructions he had allegedly made.

The post said Soeun had called on CPP faithful to “like” Hun Sen’s page, “unlike” Rainsy’s page, and “organize technical working groups in order to increase” the number of accounts liking Hun Sen’s page as part of a “vast campaign to secure victory at the forthcoming elections”.

Rainsy’s allegations followed a story published in the Phnom Penh Post that found the majority of “likes” on Hun Sen’s page were originating in countries like the Philippines and India, where so-called “click farms” are located.

In his defamatory post, Rainsy said the click farms use “poor and jobless people” to boost a page’s likes.

On Tuesday, before the verdict, Rainsy doubled-down on his allegations by sharing the screen grabs again on Facebook and referring to the case as appearing before a “Kangaroo Court”.

“I stand by my initial statement that CCP-affiliated government officials and other state employees have been instructed to create fake Facebook accounts in order to provide fake 'likes' to Mr. Hun Sen’s Facebook page,” he wrote.

“I also confirm that Mr. Hun Sen has also bought millions of fake 'likes' from 'click-farms' located in many countries all over the world.

"Prime Minister Hun Sen has been manipulating Facebook figures in order to boast about his [apparently impressive but fake] popularity, which he uses as a political justification to legitimize the ongoing violent crackdown on his more and more numerous critics.”

Rainsy is currently in exile to avoid imprisonment in a separate defamation case.