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The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the incitement conviction of former labor union leader and Nation Power Party adviser Rong Chhun, but suspended his four-year prison sentence and placed him under judicial supervision for three years.
Chhun was convicted by a Phnom Penh court in May 2025 of incitement to disturb social order over public comments about online scam operations in Cambodia and the country’s border with Vietnam. He was sentenced to four years in prison, fined 4 million riel ($1,000) and stripped of his rights to vote and run for office. His imprisonment was suspended pending appeal, though he remained under court supervision.
The Supreme Court also reduced a lifetime ban on Chhun’s political rights to five years. During the three-year supervision period, he is barred from leaving Phnom Penh or attending public gatherings.
“This decision is very unjust and there is still no national reconciliation and national unity,” Chhun told reporters outside the court.
“We cannot accept the result. We hoped to be free to participate in elections and help promote the reputation of our country, but that hope has failed,” he said.
Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court for the verdict. A similar crowd turned out for a final hearing on Monday, when supporters said authorities restricted their access to the court.
“I am very upset that the court prosecuted him. It is very unjust because he has never harmed the interests of the nation,” supporter Tep Youri, who traveled from Battambang province, said.
“The court has now suppressed him by seizing his home,” she said, adding that the ruling would draw international criticism.
Chhun’s lawyer, Em Chantha, called the Supreme Court’s decision unacceptable but said the reduction in prison time was positive.
Chhun, his supporters and rights groups have called the case politically motivated. His conviction is part of a broader crackdown on opposition figures and parties in recent years as the Cambodian People’s Party has consolidated its grip on power after more than four decades of rule.
The ruling comes amid limited legal concessions for other opposition figures targeted by the courts. Kem Sokha, former leader of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, received a partial pardon last month that ended his 27 years of house arrest on a treason conviction, but left intact his lifetime ban from politics and a five-year ban on foreign travel.
Chhun was previously convicted of incitement in 2021 over comments suggesting that a community along the Vietnam border had lost land during frontier demarcation. He served more than 15 months in prison.
In April 2025, the Phnom Penh Capital Court ordered the seizure of his assets, including his home in Phnom Penh, over a 400 million riel ($100,000) damages fine stemming from the 2021 conviction.
