Letter to the editor

Your article titled Rainsy, 2 others get five years (the Phnom Penh Post, December 28) exposes a serious inconsistency of the Hun Sen government when it comes to repression on its critics.

By having me sentenced to an increasing number of years in prison and after having issued an arrest warrant against me, the government should logically try to extradite me from any countries I am travelling through so as to force me to serve in a prison in Cambodia the many jail sentences handed down on me. But instead, they have officially and illegally exiled me and banned me from coming back to Cambodia through a warning issued last October to all airline companies that any planes carrying me will not be allowed to land in Cambodia.

This blatant contradiction in the government’s political and judicial gesticulation shows that the sentences handed down on me were politically motivated. It is crystal clear that Hun Sen just wants to discard me from the electoral process, meaning that he fears my presence.

Due to Cambodia’s Westminster-style parliamentary system, my absence as opposition leader from the national elections in 2018 would leave Hun Sen unchallenged in his bid to retain the role of prime minister, thus making any government stemming from such ridiculous elections illegitimate and unstable.

Sam Rainsy

CNRP President