Border spat

The Supreme Court will today hear an appeal in the case against opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two Svay Rieng villagers convicted last year for uprooting demarcation posts on the border with Vietnam.

Choung Choungy, the Sam Rainsy Party president’s lawyer, said on Monday that he received a summons from Supreme Court Prosecutor Phann Vanrath earlier this month, ordering the three to appear today.

Choung Choungy said that he will appear in court to defend his clients, saying that he has already prepared his defence.

In January 2010, Svay Rieng provincial court found Sam Rainsy guilty of racial incitement and destroying public property after an October 2009 incident in which he led villagers in uprooting border demarcation posts in Svay Rieng province’s Chantrea district. Two villagers from Samrong commune – Meas Srey and Prum Chea – received one-year jail terms in the same case and were released in October. Sam Rainsy, who is currently living in self-exile abroad, was also convicted in a separate case of disinformation and falsifying maps in his campaign to expose alleged Vietnamese border encroachments, and sentenced to 10 years jail.

Prosecutor Phann Vanrath could not be reached for comment on Monday.