(Bangkok) – On April 30, 2026, the Phnom Penh Court of Appeal upheld the politically motivated conviction of the Cambodian political opposition leader Kem Sokha, Human Rights Watch said today. The court extended Sokha’s de-facto house arrest and 27-year sentence that had been imposed in March 2023 and added an additional five-year ban on international travel. Cambodian authorities should immediately quash the conviction and release Sokha from custody.
Sokha, 72, is the former president of the dissolved main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). Since the Cambodian authorities arrested Sokha in 2017, he has been arbitrarily detained, mistreated in custody, and banned from voting or running for election.
“The Cambodian government should drop this bogus prosecution of Kem Sokha, immediately release him, and unconditionally restore his political rights,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The commune elections in 2027 and national election in 2028 won’t have any legitimacy so long as the government is using the courts to unjustly punish political opponents.”
Phnom Penh police and members of then-Prime Minister Hun Sen’s personal bodyguard unit arrested Sokha on September 3, 2017. An investigating judge later charged Sokha with treason and “colluding with foreigners” under article 443 of the Cambodian criminal code, which carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison.
Sokha was detained for more than a year in Correctional Center III prison in Tboung Khmum province following his arrest. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Sokha’s pretrial detention “arbitrary” and “politically motivated” in June 2018 and urged Cambodian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him. He was placed under de-facto house arrest in September 2018 where he remains.
Government prosecutors have sought to portray the CNRP’s democratic movement-building and Sokha’s leadership of human rights nongovernmental organizations and opposition parties as attempts to overthrow the government in collusion with foreign countries.
Sokha’s trial was delayed for years, with UN human rights experts noting that his trial “appears to have been artificially prolonged.” His conviction in March 2023 resulted in further restrictions on his freedom of movement and association, with the court barring him from contacting anyone except his relatives either in-person or online without the prosecutors’ permission. Sokha’s appeal began in January 2024, but hearings were suspended in September that year without clear reason and only resumed in April 2026.
Following Sokha’s 2017 arrest, the government-controlled Supreme Court, led by a chief justice who was a member of the central committee of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, ordered the CNRP dissolved in November 2017. Many senior party members fled into exile, fearing arrest. On July 29, 2018, the government organized elections in which there were no significant opposition parties or candidates. The ruling party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly, effectively turning Cambodia into a single-party state.
Since then, Cambodian authorities have continued to repress and harass the political opposition. Prosecutors opened mass trials in 2021 against other political opposition members, and defendants included more than 100 people connected to Sokha’s dissolved CNRP, as well as civil society activists.
Local elections held in 2022 were rife with numerous and significant irregularities in counting the votes, suggesting electoral fraud and vote tampering. The national election in 2023 was held amid a ban on the main current opposition party, the Candlelight Party. UN human rights experts said that the pre-election period was “extremely disconcerting,” adding that, “[i]t has affected the credibility of the entire electoral process.”
The longtime prime minister, Hun Sen, transferred the role of prime minister to his son, the former army commander Hun Manet, following the 2023 national elections. Hun Sen was appointed president of Cambodia’s Senate in April 2024 after Senate elections marred by threats and bribes. Under Hun Manet and Hun Sen, the Cambodian government has drastically curtailed rights, repressing civil and political space and other fundamental freedoms.
“Governments that have urged Cambodian authorities to free Kem Sokha for nearly a decade need to step up their response after this outrageous ruling,” Lau said. “Donor governments should be clear that they won’t provide any technical support for the upcoming elections until Cambodian authorities take steps to fully reopen the political space.”
