Former RFA reporter backs up PM’s claim: Chamboth feared being killed by US agents

A former journalist who worked with Radio Free Asia has backed up Prime Minister Hun Sen’s claim that Chun Chanboth feared being killed by US agents. Sok Ratha, a former reporter under the name Ratha Visal, said yesterday that US agents wanted to kill Mr Chanboth, deputy-director of RFA’s US-based Khmer service.

Mr Ratha’s comments came after Mr Hun Sen spoke in Sydney, where he said Mr Chanboth was his own spy working for the government and had asked military officers to protect him from being assassinated. The premier said Mr Chanboth had asked for protection from Lieutenant General Hun Manet, deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, and Brigade 70 commander Mao Sophann, because he feared US agents would kill him.

The popular RFA commentator, who is also known as Huot Vuthy, allegedly failed to disclose his profession when he signed into Prey Sar prison to visit detainees with a delegation of opposition CNRP officials in April 2017. He fled the country shortly after to escape a court appearance. Mr Ratha said that Mr Chanboth phoned him from the US and asked him to find bodyguards to protect him a month before he was to visit Cambodia in March 2017.

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/50115180/former-rfa-reporter-backs-up-pms-claim/

 

-- © Copyright Khmer Times 21/03