Thai immigration police have detained the leader of a Cambodian opposition group based in Denmark, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday, while a Cambodian official said the government was in discussion with Thailand on the man’s extradition. The detention comes ahead of a July general election that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) looks set to win after the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was dissolved by the Supreme Court last year. “Our main concern is the safety of Sam Serey if he is deported to Cambodia,” Sunai Phasuk, a senior Thailand researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in Bangkok. The Thai government must consider international law as it proceeds.”In 2016, a Cambodian court sentenced Sam Serey in absentia to nine years in prison for plotting an attack. A spokesman for Cambodia’s Interior Ministry, Khieu Sopheak, said the government had been in touch with Thailand to discuss Sam Serey’s extradition.

Source: Dhaka Tribune April 26, 2018 05:26 UTC