By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Thirteen members of a dissident group the Cambodian government refers to as a "terrorist" organization have had their convictions and sentences upheld by the appeal court in Phnom Penh.
Of the 13 -- 12 men and a woman -- tried in April 2014, six were tried in absentia. All were found guilty of plotting to overthrow the government and handed prison sentences of between seven and eight years, which were upheld at the hearing.
The Khmer National Liberation Front, or KNLF, was formed in December 2012. According to its manifesto, it is ideologically opposed to the administration of Cambodia’s long-time prime minister, Hun Sen, who they accuse of presiding over a neo-colony established by the Vietnamese.
The premier has branded the KNLF a terrorist organization and vowed to crack down on it, its members and their activities both in Cambodia and abroad.
To that end, the seven men who did get tried in person were those the government arrested in Thailand in 2013 and sent to Cambodia to face trial on accusations that they had been disseminating pamphlets critical of the government that allegedly spoke of revolution.
In a report Saturday by The Cambodia Daily, the presiding judge at the court was quoted as saying that documents and information found on laptops was incriminating because they “railed against the government and they urged the international community to not recognize the government.”
One of the 13 is KNLF president Sam Serey, who lives in self-imposed exile in Denmark and was therefore able to avoid the trial and prison sentence.
He told Anadolu Agency by email late Friday that the hounding of KNLF members is “unjust”, because the group acts in accordance with the constitution.
"We have not committed anything wrong. We just want to use our rights but they have been unfairly imprisoned," Serey said, adding that the court lacks independence and is a “political tool of Hun Sen's regime.”
“[I] would like send this message to all members of KNLF and all pro-democracy activists in Cambodia that you all are not alone; I am standing with all of you. Your voices have been heard,” he added.
Last week, a trial opened against 10 other members of the KNLF who were arrested in October, accused of plotting to incite violence by planting explosives along the border with Thailand.
Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan refuted the claims to AA on Saturday, stating that the government is "from and for the people".
"It’s a sovereign state and nobody else can interfere with this. [The people] elected their own government. We have a justice system that has had a number of reforms, a lot of improvements as well as human rights," he added.
Asked about the KNLF’s claims that they are acting lawfully in disseminating opinions about the conduct of the government, Siphan said he was not in a position to manipulate what the courts had decided, because "they have their own responsibility -- they are independent and sovereign."
He said cases are decided based on motive and proof, and that lawyers always have the opportunity to argue on their clients’ behalves.
