Senator sentenced : 2 years and half for Facebook Posts

A member of the opposition was sentenced to two and half years in jail yesterday over comments and posts he made on Facebook. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced Um Sam An to two years and six months after finding him guilty of incitement and discrimination under articles 495 and 496 of the Criminal Code.
 

The firebrand member of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was arrested on April 11 after traveling abroad for a number of months. His arrest and trial relate to a series of comments and Facebook posts he made this year and last year about the government’s handling of border demarcation between Cambodia and Vietnam.   Mr. Sam An claimed the government was intentionally using the wrong maps to demarcate the border in a covert effort to cede land to Vietnam, a charge the government has repeatedly and vehemently denied.
 

The CNRP has called Mr. Sam An’s trial a farce, claiming his parliamentary immunity was being ignored. The government says it was allowed to arrest and prosecute Mr. Sam An under an obscure rule – often used to ensnare opposition members – which allows police to circumvent parliamentary immunity and arrest MPs if they are “caught in the act.”