This morning the Court of Appeal upheld the convictions of 11 CNRP officials and supporters convicted of insurrection offences related to a demonstration marred by clashes between para-police and demonstrators on 15 July 2014. The verdict, delivered in just three minutes, upheld prison sentences of between seven and 20 years.

The verdict followed a protracted appeal process that first began in 2016 and was concluded by three days of hearings between 23 and 25 April this year. During these hearings live testimony was extremely limited. The plaintiffs were unable to identify the defendants as perpetrators and admitted other individuals had in fact written at least some of the original complaints.

Additional and virtually identical statements from almost 40 absent members of the Daun Penh para-police were read on to the record, which prevented any cross-examination by defence lawyers.

Video evidence submitted to the court confirmed that a number of the defendants were active in attempts to prevent violence and had personally protected injured members of the para-police.

Immediately following the verdict the 11 men were returned to CC1 to continue serving their sentences. They have spent more than 1,000 days in detention.