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Former opposition leader Kem Sokha has postponed plans to enter Buddhist monkhood and has kept a low public profile since receiving a partial royal pardon, with his lawyers saying on Thursday that he has been focused on caring for his ailing mother.
Sokha, 72, told CamboJA News last month that he planned to be ordained as a monk, a common practice in predominantly Buddhist Cambodia where men may enter monkhood temporarily before returning to lay life.
His lawyer, Meng Sopheary, said Sokha had decided to delay the ordination to care for his mother.
“She can no longer eat, and doctors have informed the family that her body is unable to produce enough red blood cells,” Sopheary said.
The former leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was dissolved by the Supreme Court in 2017, was arrested that year on treason charges that rights groups and United Nations experts said were politically motivated.
A Phnom Penh court found him guilty of treason in 2023, sentencing him to 27 years of house arrest, barring him from politics for life and prohibiting contact with anyone outside his family.
In May, Sokha was granted a partial royal pardon that lifted his house arrest but left intact his lifetime ban from politics and a five-year ban on foreign travel. The pardon came less than a month after he lost an appeal against his conviction.
The move was welcomed by foreign diplomatic missions and rights groups, some of which called for the full restoration of Sokha’s civil and political rights.
Pheng Heng, another of Sokha’s lawyers, said Sokha has largely stayed out of public view since receiving the partial pardon as he has been focused on caring for his mother.
His first trip after receiving the pardon was to his hometown in Takeo province, Heng said.
