Cambodian Americans sentenced for attacks on communist government
By Chris Decherd/AP
A court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, sentenced five men, including three Cambodian Americans, to life in prison, and handed jail terms to 25 others in the country’s biggest terrorism trial on June 22. Two of the Cambodian Americans were tried in absentia while two defendants were acquitted.
A total of 32 people were accused of attempting to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen by carrying out an armed attack on three government buildings in the capital on Nov. 24.
The defendants’ family members, watched over by heavily-armed police, wailed as they listened to the verdicts read out by Judge Sok Sethamony of the Phnom Penh City Court.
“They made people feel terrified and threatened their lives,” Sok Sethamony said.
“They tried to use violence to obtain power, established illegal armed forces, wanted to take senior government officials captive and overthrow the government,” he said.
The defendants were also found guilty of being members of an illegal group, the little-known anti-communist Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which claimed responsibility for the Nov. 24 attack.
The pre-dawn raids did little damage and were repelled in a few hours. Officials said six attackers and one civilian were killed and 12 were wounded.
The five men sentenced to life on charges of conspiring to commit terrorism are An Mao, 32, Nou Saron, 52, and three Cambodian-Americans: Richard Kiri Kim, 51, Thong Samien, 60 and Chhun Yasith, the 43-year-old leader of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters.
Chhun Yasith and Thong Samien were tried in absentia.
An Mao and Nou Saron, two former Khmer Rouge soldiers, were the only defendants found to have taken part in the Nov. 24 attacks.
Twenty-four other men and one woman were found guilty of various charges and given prison terms ranging from three to 20 years. Among them were two prominent former Khmer Rouge commanders, Seng Narin and Tumlap Mil, who each got 15 years in prison.
Chhun Yasith, a 43-year-old tax accountant from Long Beach, California, was also found guilty of masterminding the violence. Thong Samien, a travel agent from Long Beach, was found guilty of handling logistics for the attack.
Kiri Kim, of Oregon, was found guilty of being one of the key planners of the violence and recruiting poor farmers into the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which he portrayed as a development aid organization helping to rebuild Cambodia after 25 years of civil strife.
David Chaniawa, a lawyer for the three Cambodian Americans, said he plans to appeal the verdicts. Counsel for the other defendants did not comment.
“The court is not independent and illegal procedures were used throughout,” Chaniawa said, referring partly to the heavy police presence in the courtroom.
The Cambodian Freedom Fighters accuses the prime minister of being dictatorial. Hun Sen belonged to the ultra-left Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, and later headed a single-party communist state backed by Vietnam. |
