Popiet commune’s apparent chief-elect, Chao Veasna, who is currently under pretrial detention, was rushed to hospital on Saturday for an operation on his appendix, his wife said yesterday.

Vong Kimhong said Veasna was operated on at the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Hospital in Banteay Meanchey province’s in Mongkol Borei district, and is now recovering and in a stable condition.

She said her husband was still scheduled to be checked for other possible ailments, which would be confirmed after an X-rays were taken, and would remain in hospital until then.

“We don’t know how long he will stay here. But he is in relief now,” she said.

Veasna, the opposition’s chief candidate for Poipet at the June 4 elections, was jailed in February when a case relating to a 2015 protest he allegedly led at a local customs office was resurrected.

Speaking from prison last month, Veasna questioned why the case has been revived near the elections. Yet he ran his campaign from his cell, and came away with twice the number of votes of the ruling party.