Kim Sokha Charged with Defamation

On Monday, August 30, 2010 the president of Human Rights Party Mr. Kem Sokha was summoned for questioning by Phnom Penh Municipal Court of First Instance for the accusation of defamation, breach of trust and the utilization of fake documents. The summons was issued by Deputy Prosecutor Sok Roeun to ask Mr. Kem Sokha to come out for interrogating on September 6, 2010.

Various media reported that the case was stemmed from 2006 when Mr. Kem Sokha was still the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR). He was sued by a group of 16 co-workers for the aforementioned allegations.

Chhim Phalvorun, the former deputy president of CCHR and one of the plaintiffs, was quoted as saying that in 2006 Mr. Kem Sokha fired a number of employees because he thought they were not loyal to him, while preserving the services of his supporters and family members. The group had lodged a separate defamation lawsuit against Mr. Kem Sokha over some of his public responses to their accusations. Meanwhile, Mr. Chhim Phalvorun also appeared at court that day in order to clarify the lawsuit.

The secretary general for Human Rights Party Mr. Yem Punharith said that he had received the subpoena for Mr. Kem Sokha from the court; and was thinking he would lodge a complaint to request for suspension for Mr. Kem Sokha is still on mission abroad.

However, Mr. Ou Virak, the president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights considered the lawsuits against Mr. Kem Sokha, which has just taken for proceedings as political motivation and issue, exposing to intimidate Mr. Kem Sokha. The matter has passed for four years. Anyway the case was taken for processing shortly after Prime Minister Hun Sen has recently reacted against Mr. Kem Sokha.