Opposition youth leader and National Assembly candidate Suong Sophorn yesterday faced court to answer questions regarding his lawsuit alleging Prime Minister Hun Sen faked documents to allow illegal Vietnamese immigrants into the country.

The Phnom Penh court questioned Sophorn, a Cambodian National Rescue Party candidate in Pailin province, for over an hour about his June 20 complaint that the Prime Minister had asked officials to issue Vietnamese citizens false identification cards so they could vote for the ruling party.

Outside the court, Sophorn, 26, said he had evidence that “more than three million illegal Vietnamese immigrants are allowed to live in Cambodia due to a conspiracy between Hun Sen and officials in the Ministry of Interior to fake documents.”

He added that he had asked the court to summon 10 such Vietnamese nationals living in Phnom Penh to support his claims.

He also played an alleged 1990 recording of the prime minister, in which he apparently admits that more than 100,000 Vietnamese soldiers were in Cambodia and seemingly says he was under Vietnamese control.

In December, the court dropped a previous lawsuit by Sophorn against the prime minister for his alleged role in the 2010 Koh Pich stampede.

Deputy prosecutor Soeu Vanny said the court had not yet considered summoning the prime minister.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said the case was a “personal lawsuit. Nothing related to CNRP.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JUSTINE DRENNAN