Government Detains Human Rights Activist
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A prominent Cambodian human rights activist was detained on defamation charges, the latest in a series of legal actions taken by the government against its critics.
Kem Sokha, director of the U.S.-funded Cambodian Center of Human Rights, was arrested after a several-hour standoff at his Phnom Penh office.
His lawyer, Som Chandyna, said Kem Sokha had been detained over what appeared to be graffiti calling Prime Minister Hun Sen “a communist dictator who sold away [Cambodian] land to Vietnam.”
He said the phrase was on a banner at a Dec. 10 gathering that Kem Sokha’s group helped organize but that the activist was outside Cambodia at the time.
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