Thailand deports six Cambodian activists accused of treason over critical Facebook comments

PHNOM PENH– Six Cambodian activists charged with treason over Facebook comments criticizing their government have been deported from Thailand to face trial, a pro-democracy group said Thursday.

The Khmer Movement for Democracy, a movement formed by exiled opposition leaders, criticized the decision to return the four women and two men on November 24, saying they will face “inhuman and degrading treatment” in the overcrowded prison system of Cambodia.

Thailand and Cambodia are accused by rights groups of having a de facto agreement to return political dissidents wanted by their home countries.

The activists – Pen Chan Sangkream, Hong An, Mean Chanthon, Yin Chanthou, Soeung Khunthea and Vorn Chanratana – are affiliated with the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was disbanded ahead of the 2018 general election as part of the crackdown on the opposition.

The Cambodian People’s Party subsequently won every seat in the National Assembly in an election that returned autocratic leader Hun Sen to power.

Hun Sen ruled Cambodia for almost four decades until 2023, when he stepped aside to make way for his son Hun Manet, who was elected prime minister later that year in elections internationally criticized as neither free nor fair.

The six activists were charged with treason by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in August after posting statements critical of the Cambodian government’s involvement in a decades-old regional development agreement with neighboring countries, said Am Sam Ath, operations director of local rights group Licadho . He confirmed that the six had been deported by the Thai government.

The Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA) Agreement was a development plan intended to facilitate trade and migration cooperation in four northeastern provinces of Cambodia and border areas in Laos and Vietnam. It was signed in 1999 and formalized in 2004.

Critics focused on land concessions, claiming that the pact privileges foreign interests, and especially that it would cede land and sovereignty to Vietnam, a very sensitive issue because of Cambodia’s historical antagonism towards its larger eastern neighbor.

Almost In August, 100 people were also arrested in Cambodia to protest the agreement.

Hun Manet defended the crackdown, saying authorities must protect social order and security in the interests of all Cambodians, and accused protesters of trying to overthrow his government.

His government then withdrew from the CLV-DTA in Septemberbut charges against those who protested remain.

Kheang Sonadin, a spokesman for Cambodia’s prison department, said all six activists had been assigned to different prisons on November 25.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

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Riot reported from Bangkok