Asia-Pacific

Cambodia opposition leader convicted to 10 years in jail

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-23 16:19
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PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced Thursday that the country's opposition leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Sam Rainsy was charged with falsifying public document and his hearing was conducted on September 8, but his verdict was not announced until Thursday.

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Sam Rainsy was absent from both hearing and the spelling of the verdict.

In addition to his term in jail, Sam Rainsy was ordered to pay 5 million riel ($1,200) for fine and another 60 million riel as compensation to the government.

It is his second conviction in less than 10 months in 2010.

Early this year, he was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail by a provincial court for helping villagers to pull out temporary border marking where they claimed the markers polled inside their farming land.  

The defend lawyer for Sam Rainsy said he will make an appeal for his client, saying the verdict was "unjust".

Sam Rainsy is now in France as he has been in self-exile for nearly a year.

The court found him guilty of falsifying public documents and disinformation through a map that he posted on his party's website.