The Phnom Penh municipal court has decided to delay the announcement of another sentence on Sam Rainsy to Sept. 23, 2010.

The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) President faces the charge of falsifying maps and documents to distort and prevent the Cambodian government’s border demarcation and marker planting along the shared borderline with Vietnam .

Sam Rainsy, who is living in self-exile abroad, did not attend but authorised his lawyer to represent him at the first hearing on Sept. 8.

Judge Ker Sakhorn said the court could not come to a final decision after more than four hours of heated arguments between the government lawyer, Ky Tech, and the Sam Rainsy President’s defence lawyer, Chuong Chou-ngy.

Ky Tech demanded the court sentence Sam Rainsy pursuant to Articles 49 and 62 of the 1992 Criminal Code of Cambodia.

If found guilty according to both articles, he could face a maximum sentence of 18 years in jail.

Sam Rainsy has had a two-year jail term hanging over his head since January, when Svay Rieng provincial court convicted him of uprooting markers along the Cambodia-Vietnam border last year./.