Cambodian UN employee sentenced under restrictive new speech law

Dec 20, 2010, 5:11 GMT

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian court has sentenced a United Nations employee to six months in prison after he was convicted under the new penal code for distributing anti-government materials.

Seng Kunnaka, a Cambodian security guard for the UN World Food Program, was sentenced Sunday, just two days after his arrest. He was charged under a new law that took effect less than two weeks ago.

'The court found him guilty of incitement ... on Sunday and sent him to prison that same day,' Municipal Court Judge Kor Vanndy told the Cambodia Daily newspaper.

Seng Kunnaka was reportedly arrested after printing out and distributing material from KI-Media, a popular Cambodian news blog that takes a strident anti-government line.

Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the World Food Program's country director for Cambodia, told the newspaper that the agency was still trying to learn more about the case.

'We are purely a development agency not involved in any political activity and abide entirely to humanitarian principles, which include impartiality,' he said in an email.

Licadho, a local civil rights group, criticized the conviction, saying 'the new criminal code in its current form is a threat to freedom of expression in the country.'

'This rushed trial and groundless conviction is further proof of the growing crackdown on freedom of expression by the Cambodian government,' Licadho director Naly Pilorge said.

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