Thirteen Convicted, At Least Four Jailed in Heart Party Forgery Case
Published on 24 March 2023
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court this afternoon convicted Seam Pluk, co-founder of the Cambodia National Heart Party (CNHP), and twelve others on charges of forgery and use of forged documents under Articles 626, 627 and 628 of the Criminal Code. In addition to Pluk, who has been in detention since April 2022, three additional co-defendants were arrested hours before the verdict for unknown reasons.
The court sentenced Pluk to two years and six months in prison and imposed a fine of 5 million riel (USD $1,250), while the other 12 defendants received two-year sentences with the same fine. Warrants for their arrest were issued. The court provided no reasoning in its judgment.
The three co-defendants arrested this morning, prior to the verdict, are currently members of the Candlelight Party. They include 74-year-old Touch Theung, the Kampong Cham provincial head for the opposition party; 33-year-old Khoeun Virath, a commune councillor elected in 2022 in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tumpun 2 commune; and 63-year-old Nou Sitheary, a commune councillor elected in 2022 in Phnom Penh’s Stung Meanchey 1 commune.
Reasons for their arrest were not immediately clear. The other sentenced defendants are: Chea Sopheak, Chhim Savath, Chhorng Hor, Long Houn, Phap Khun, Phly Chhunheng, Phly Menghong, Reth Chanratana, and Sean Pheap.
On 16 November 2021, the Ministry of Interior rejected the CNHP’s application for registration as a political party on the basis that the party had forged a small subset of over 4,700 supporters’ thumbprints submitted to meet a required minimum of 4,000 thumbprints. The Ministry claimed that over 200 of the thumbprints had either been duplicated, unidentifiable or were inconsistent with identity documents. Seam Pluk appealed the Ministry of Interior’s decision, which was upheld by the Supreme Court on 24 December 2021.
MP3 format: Listen to audio version in Khmer
