THE daughter of imprisoned journalist and publisher Hang Chakra has renewed her call for Prime Minister Hun Sen to request a Royal pardon for her father, whose health she said was failing under the strain of conditions in Prey Sar prison.

“I visited my father in prison last Friday and found that his chronic lung and stomach illnesses had been worsening because of cigarette smoke from 49 other prisoners who share his cell,” Hang Chan Pisey, 24, said Monday.

“My family needs him, and we hope that Samdech Hun Sen, who is my second father, would make a request that King Sihamoni grant him a pardon and release him.”

Hang Chan Pisey said she wrote a letter about the possibility of a pardon to Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith two months ago, but that she received a reply only Monday.

Khieu Kanharith said Monday that Hang Chakra needed to serve two-thirds of his jail term before he became eligible for a pardon.

On June 26, Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted Hang Chakra, then publisher of the opposition-aligned Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, of spreading disinformation, sentencing him to one year in prison and ordering him to pay 9 million riels (US$2,250) in fines.