For over two decades, Rainsy has been Hun Sen’s main opponent. In the general elections in 2013, the CNRP, the party co-founded by Rainsy and Kem Sokha, came close to victory, when it won 55 of the 123 parliamentary seats. During commune elections in 2017, the opposition party repeated that result, when it won almost 44% of all the votes.

Cambodia cracks down on activists as opposition leader plans return

By Ate Hoekstra (Phnom Penh) | 18.10.2019

At least 30 opposition activists have been arrested this year and accused of plotting to overthrow the Cambodian government before the planned return from self-exile of Sam Rainsy, the main opposition leader.

Rong Chun has never been a man who is easily intimidated. Since the early 1990s, the labor activist and president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions has been involved in a battle for democracy, human rights and fair wages. “I want equality. I want all Cambodian people to have democracy and respect human rights,” he says. “Should I stop because I’m scared? I use my right to say what I want to say.” 

But for supporters of Cambodia’s main opposition party, the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), saying what they want to say has become increasingly dangerous in the past several weeks. Since CNRP leader Sam Rainsy announced that he would end his self-imposed exile and return to Cambodia on November 9, at least 30 opposition supporters have been arrested. Others have been called in by the police for questioning, are intimidated or have fled the country.

The Cambodian government accuses Rainsy, who has been living in exile for about four years, and his supporters of plotting a coup to topple the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985.

“Everyone is making an escape plan.” A Cambodian government insider. Becoming a Cypriot isn’t cheap: It involves an investment of at least €2 million ($2.2 million). Between 2013 and 2018, the country granted citizenship to 3,200 foreigners under its Cyprus Investment Programme, raking in €6.6 billion

“Everyone is making escape plan.” Source from CPP insider

How relatives and allies of Cambodia’s leader amassed wealth overseas

Khmer Riche by Reuter Investigation News

On Instagram and Facebook, Hun Sen’s family and associates chart their life of luxury

Cambodia’s ruling elite are patriots who would never hide money abroad, says the country’s leader, Hun Sen. But a Reuters investigation shows that Hun Sen’s family and officials have overseas assets worth tens of millions of dollars, and some have bought themselves European citizenship.

By CLARE BALDWIN and ANDREW RC MARSHALL in NICOSIA, CYPRUS/LONDON

Filed Oct. 16, 2019, 11 a.m. GMT

Cambodia’s long-ruling prime minister, Hun Sen, had gathered athletes at his imposing office for a televised pep talk. “I don’t want to mention politics,” he began quietly.

But he couldn’t help himself. It was December 2017. The main opposition party had just been outlawed, the latest move in Hun Sen’s campaign to eradicate his political rivals. The United States and European Union were threatening sanctions, and Hun Sen had a message for them.

“Just do it now if you are brave enough,” he taunted, bristling with outrage. There was no point in the West trying to seize the foreign assets of Cambodian officials, he went on, because they “wouldn’t be so damn stupid as to keep their assets overseas.”

But a Reuters investigation shows that those closest to Hun Sen have done exactly that. Family members and key police, business and political associates have overseas assets worth tens of millions of dollars, and have used their wealth to buy foreign citizenship – a practice Hun Sen has decried as unpatriotic and at times has sought to outlaw.

Among those who have acquired or applied for European Union passports through a citizenship for sale arrangement in Cyprus are: Hun Sen’s niece and her husband, who is Cambodia’s national police chief; the country’s most powerful business couple, who are old family friends; and the finance minister, a long-time Hun Sen adviser.

“Everyone is making an escape plan.”A Cambodian government insider

Photos on social media also show Hun Sen’s relatives enjoying luxurious European lifestyles – boating in Capri, skiing in Verbier, partying in Ibiza – which are at odds with the prime minister’s self-styled image as the humble leader of ordinary Cambodians.

Hun Sen is 67 and has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for more than three decades. He has jailed or exiled political rivals, shut down media outlets and crushed street protests. Only three men have controlled their countries for longer: the presidents of Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo. If Hun Sen stepped down tomorrow, Vladimir Putin would have to rule Russia for another 15 years to match his time in power.

The party “resolutely rejects the notion that the return from exile of the CNRP leaders can be treated as ‘intention to commit armed rebellion’ as such charges have no relation neither to reality nor to legality,” she wrote on Twitter, adding, “We have No arms!”

Crackdown in Cambodia Ahead of Planned Return of Opposition Leader

PHNOM PENH – Cambodian authorities have launched a crackdown on activists in a move observers say is an attempt to intimidate opposition supporters ahead of the planned, but uncertain return next month from self-exile of Sam Rainsy, the acting head of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, and other opposition leaders.

Rainsy, who faces a range of charges and convictions in absentia and multiple arrest warrants, and others who fled the country following the 2017 dissolution of the CNRP, plan to return Nov. 9, which is Cambodian Independence Day and the anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell.

According to a CNRP list, as of midday Oct. 9, 37 activists affiliated with the party and former officials have been arrested this year and placed in pre-trial detention. Thirteen of those were arrested in September. Since then, four more members have been arrested.

More than a dozen others have been charged over the past week with incitement to commit a felony or with conspiracy to topple the government for attempts to mobilize citizens for the return of the opposition leaders.

Phay Siphan, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Council of Ministers, said the arrests were justified as those arrested had indicated they would join Rainsy on his return to stage a coup.