Interior Minister Sar Kheng and deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha will meet next week in their capacities as “majority” and “minority” leaders, an official said yesterday, with the opposition saying the topic would be the release of jailed rights activists.

National Assembly spokesman Leng Peng Long said the meeting was scheduled for next week but that he did not know the date or reason. However, CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang said that it would occur on Tuesday and would concern the release of the activists.

Chhay Eang noted that Kheng said last week that recent pardons for Sokha and Seang Chet, an opposition commune chief jailed in relation to the case surrounding Sokha’s alleged mistress, would likely be followed

this month by the five activists, who were jailed over the same case.

“Seang Chet and Kem Sokha are in the same case. And [the five] are in the same package too – for release,” Chhay Eang said of the four Adhoc activists and Ny Chakrya, a former monitor with the group who this year was appointed an elections official.

Yesterday, Sokha also visited US Ambassador William Heidt for talks “about the domestic political situation and US-Cambodian relations”, according to the US Embassy. It was Sokha’s first embassy visit since coming out of hiding after his pardon.