Cambodia opposition leader charged with treason, espionage

– Electoral challenge –

Kem Sokha’s surprise detention raises the political temperature in Cambodia.

The CNRP had been widely tipped to perform strongly in the 2018 polls, buoyed by the youth vote in a country where many are tired of rampant corruption, inequality and the dwindling respect for human rights.

In February the CNRP’s then-leader Sam Rainsy stepped down after a fresh welter of legal cases against him threatened the party with a ban from politics.

He already lives in France to avoid convictions in Cambodia, which he says are politically motivated.

Kem Sokha took over at the helm of the party, but has been buffeted by allegations and threats driven by Hun Sen and backed up by the kingdom’s notoriously pliant courts.

On Monday a re-tweet on Kem Sokha’s official Twitter feed read: “I may lose my freedom, but may freedom never die in Cambodia.”

Analysts say Hun Sen is determined to extend his three-decade rule and withstand the burgeoning popularity of the CNRP, muffling critics in the media and civil society.

On Monday The Cambodia Daily, one of the last independent newspapers in the kingdom, was shuttered by a tax claim which it says is trumped up to muzzle its critical reporting.

Crackdowns on opposition politicians by the premier are routine before elections but the recent series of charges is unprecedented.

“It seems like all the old rules are out the window,” said Sebastian Strangio, an expert on Cambodian politics, adding Hun Sen’s stranglehold on the kingdom is stronger than ever.

“Deprived of its leader, and harried by government repression, the CNRP will struggle to mount an effective campaign at next year’s election.”

Hun Sen, a firebrand former Khmer Rouge fighter turned premier, sells himself as the only man who can bind Cambodia together after dragging it from the ashes of civil war and bringing impressive economic growth in the last decade.

That argument has traction among many Cambodians, particularly the older generation who remember the fanatical Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s which left nearly a quarter of the population dead.