Cambodia’s Hun Sen demands US$1 million from exiled leader or he’ll seize opposition party headquarters
I am waiting for the verdict to be finalised. This time, I will take money ... I am demanding $1,000,000
The one-million-dollar lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal cases targeting Cambodian opposition leaders trying to break Hun Sen’s 32-year grip on power.
Rights groups say the strongman is trying to keep his opponents under pressure ahead of local elections this year and a general election in 2018.
Hun Sen filed the latest defamation case against top foe Rainsy for accusing him of bribery in a speech several weeks ago.
“I am waiting for the verdict to be finalised. This time, I will take money ... I am demanding US$1,000,000,” the premier said during a parliamentary session on Tuesday.
“I heard the party’s headquarters is registered under the name of Sam Rainsy, so the party’s headquarters will be auctioned,” he told the assembly, adding that the politician’s personal property would also be “frozen ... and sold”.
The money would be used to build houses for handicapped people, he added.
Rainsy, who currently lives in France and faces several lawsuits, was sentenced to five years in prison in December over a post on his Facebook page, a conviction that makes his return from self-imposed exile unlikely.