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National police and Phnom Penh Municipal Court officials implemented a court warrant to free Kem Sokha, former Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president, after he received a royal pardon for his 27-year jail sentence, at his house in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kork district about 8:30 a.m on Tuesday.
After receiving the court warrant this morning, Sokha came out to greet the officials, followed by the withdrawal of the police forces guarding his house. Sokha, who is now free from house arrest, declined to be interviewed by the media.
“I can’t talk to the media now. I am staying quiet because I have to care for my mother who has been ill for a while. Secondly, I will join monkhood [as a sign of] thanks to my mother,” Sokha told CamboJA News.
The Phnom Penh court allowed Sokha to visit his 101-years-old mother two times this month before he was granted a royal pardon on Monday, freeing him from his prison sentence for treason, which he served in his house, in a long-running case. However, his other restrictions remain in place, including the ban on politics.
The 72-year-old founder of the now-dissolved CNRP was sentenced to jail and barred from politics after being found guilty of conspiring with the United States to topple the government headed by former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was one of the longest serving prime ministers in the world at the time. His son Hun Manet succeeded him in August 2023. Sokha has denied the treason charges since his arrest in 2017.
