Hanoi (VNA) – Cambodian Prime Minister HunSen has authorised his lawyer to file adefamation lawsuit against opposition leader Sam Rainsy for accusing him ofgiving 1 million USD to a social media celebrity to attack the oppositionparty, local media reported on January 18.
Fresh News cited Ky Tech, a lawyer of the PrimeMinister, as saying that PM Hun Sen empowered him to lodge the complaintagainst Sam Rainsy to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court before he left forSwitzerland to attend the World Economic Forum.
The complaint was made after Sam Rainsy, President of the CambodiaNational Rescue Party (CNRP), said that the Prime Minister had offered socialmedia celebrity Thy Sovantha 1 million USD to fund the campaign against theopposition party.
In the complaint, PM Hun Sen also demanded a compensation of 1 millionUSD from Sam Rainsy.
A day earlier, Thy Sovanntha also filed a defamationlawsuit against Sam Rainsy, demanding 250,000 USD in compensation.
On August 1, 2016, PM Hun Sen sued Sam Rainsy forslandering the government and the Prime Minister of standing behind theassassination of a political analysis.
Sam Rainsy has been living in exile from November 2015to avoid a two-year prison sentence over defaming Deputy PM Hor Namhong in2008.
Last December, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court alsosentenced in absentia Sam Rainsy to another five years in prison for conspiringto incite chaos in the country through posting fake documents on his Facebookpage.-VNA
Cambodia’s Sam Rainsy to miss 2013 polls
Sam Rainsy, President of Cambodia’s Sam
Rainsy Party (SRP), will not be able to run in the 2013 elections if he
does not return to serve two years in prison for uprooting markers on
the border area with Vietnam, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.