PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Two Cambodian journalists who worked for U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia were charged with espionage on Saturday, the latest targets in an intensifying crackdown on perceived opponents of the country’s authoritarian prime minister. The pair — Uon Chhin and Yeang Socheameta — were arrested Tuesday and are suspected of supplying information to a foreign state, a spokesman for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Ly Sophana, said. The crackdown is seen as part of the Hun Sen government effort to neutralize political opponents ahead of elections next year. Hun Sen has been in office since 1985 and has held a tight grip on power since ousting a co-prime minister in a bloody 1997 coup. Although Cambodia, ravaged by the murderous Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s, is now nominally a democratic state, its institutions remain fragile and the rule of law weak.

Source: National Post November 18, 2017 07:06 UTC