About 1,000 youth members of the Sam Rainsy Party will gather for a protest in Phnom Penh next month to demand the release of political prisoners, though the sweeping request did not include any specific names.

The planned march is scheduled for November 8; party members will start out at Freedom Park and head to the Royal Palace and Ministry of Justice.

Soung Sophorn, head of the Sam Rainsy Party Youth Movement, said that along the way, he and others will file petitions with King Norodom Sihamoni and the Ministry of Justice.

The announcement came not long after a similar request for the release of political prisoners made by Prince Sisowath Thomico in the wake of King Father Norodom Sihanouk’s death on October 15.

Thomico, a personal aide to Sihanouk, appealed to the government to release political prisoners such as Mam Sonando, an independent radio station owner who was sentenced to 20 years in early October for his role in a so-called secessionist plot.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Yuthana at [email protected]