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Opposition members and analysts say Cambodia’s pardon of Kem Sokha appears aimed at easing international scrutiny over democratic backsliding rather than signalling broader reform, after a recent royal decree lifted the opposition leader’s house arrest while keeping bans on politics and foreign travel in place.
Sokha, 72, co-founded the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was banned by the Supreme Court after his 2017 arrest. He was sentenced in 2023 to 27 years of house arrest in Phnom Penh on treason charges United Nations experts said were politically motivated.
Alongside the sentence, Sokha was stripped of his political rights and barred from meeting anyone outside his family.
Hun Sen, now Senate president after handing power to his son Hun Manet in 2023, signed the royal pardon Monday on behalf of King Norodom Sihamoni, who is receiving treatment for prostate cancer abroad.
The pardon removed Sokha’s house arrest but left intact his lifetime ban from politics and a five-year foreign travel ban imposed after he lost an appeal in April.
Kong Monika, a senator from the Khmer Will Party in a parliament dominated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), described the pardon as a positive humanitarian and political development after years of legal pressure and isolation, but said the core political issues remain.
“The fact that he [Sokha] remains banned from political participation demonstrates that the fundamental political problem has not yet been resolved,” Monika said, adding that the decision could ease tensions and soften international criticism over political repression and shrinking democratic space.
Monika said national reconciliation could not happen while restrictions on opposition figures remained in place.
Cambodia has long faced criticism from democratic governments and rights groups over what they describe as shrinking civic and political space under the CPP’s decades-long rule.
Ly Sothearayuth, secretary-general of the Candlelight Party, widely seen as the CPP’s main challenger before it was barred from the 2023 election, echoed concerns over continued political restrictions.
“I would say that true political reconciliation requires inclusivity,” he said.
He called on the government to restart dialogue among political actors, allow exiled opposition figures to return and release jailed activists.
When asked about the criticism, CPP spokesperson Chea Thirith described it as “extremist opinions” from groups that would continue to criticize the government regardless of its actions.
The government has denied targeting political opponents despite criticism over a lack of judicial independence, saying those convicted were lawbreakers.
Analysts also said Sokha’s pardon did little to signal a wider political opening.
Sophal Ear, Cambodian-American political scientist and professor at Arizona State University, said reconciliation would remain difficult while major opposition figures were barred from political participation.
“Reconciliation is not only about reducing punishment; it is also about restoring political inclusion and rebuilding confidence that political competition can occur fairly and peacefully,” he said, describing the pardon as “symbolic” rather than transformative.
He said ending Sokha’s house arrest could modestly improve Cambodia’s international image but added that the underlying political structure remained unchanged.
Cambodia has also sought to limit reputational damage internationally by cracking down on the vast online scam industry that has flourished in the country.
Several envoys from European and North American countries in Cambodia that previously issued statements expressing concern over Sokha’s conviction had yet to publicly comment on the pardon as of Wednesday morning.
In a statement later on Wednesday, German Ambassador Stefan Messerer said he hoped the pardon would represent a “broader move toward a more open and just civic and political space in Cambodia.”
The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh said earlier this month it was troubled by an appeals court decision to uphold Sokha’s conviction just weeks before the pardon, adding that allegations of U.S. involvement in plots against Cambodia’s government were “patently false and irresponsible.”
The embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
*This article was updated to add a statement from German Ambassador to Cambodia Stefan Messerer
