Cambodia apex court dissolves main Opposition party

Phnom Penh: Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the country’s main Opposition party and banned more than 100 of its politicians from office for five years on Thursday, in a ruling blasted by a rights groups as the “death” of the nation’s democracy.

The verdict was widely expected of a justice system warped by the influence of Premier Hun Sen, whose is accused of ruthlessly targeting rivals ahead of 2018 polls.

It nevertheless delivers a crushing blow to the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) -- a party that has fought tirelessly to break the authoritarian leader’s 32-year grip on power.

The court “decides to dissolve the CNRP and ban 118 leaders... from politics for five years starting from the date of the verdict,” said Judge Dith Munty, who is himself a member of Hun Sen’s ruling CPP party.

The judge said the CNRP, by not sending any lawyers to the trial, had effectively confessed to the government-levied accusation of conspiring with the US and other foreign actors to plot a revolution.

The CNRP and Washington have rejected those charges as bogus, with the main evidence from the government being a speech from the party’s president discussing US help to build a democracy-movement in Cambodia.

Rights groups said the verdict stripped next year’s election of any credibility.

“This is the death of democracy in Cambodia,” said Phil Roberztson from Human Rights Watch, calling on for foreign partners to suspend any assistance for the 2018 poll.