FILE - Cambodia National Rescue Party's President Kem Sokha, center, speaks to journalists before heading to the court in his house in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Jan. 19, 2022. Kem Sokha, Cambodia's most prominent opposition politician not in exile, is scheduled Friday, March 3, 2023, to hear the verdict in his trial for treason, for which he was arrested in 2017 as part of a government crackdown on the opposition. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)

PHNOM PENH – A court in Cambodia on Friday found Kem Sokha, leader of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, guilty of treason and sentenced him to 27 years imprisonment to be served under house arrest.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court said he had colluded with a foreign power from 2010 until his arrest in September 2017. It said he had one month to file an appeal against its ruling.

The Cambodia National Rescue Party was dissolved shortly after his 2017 arrest on related charges.

The ruling, four months ahead of a general election, is the latest blow against the opposition, which has faced years of legal harassment from the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Kem Sokha, 69, is the country’s most prominent opposition politician not in exile — others having fled abroad to escape what were generally seen as politically inspired prosecutions.

The court said Kem Sokha is barred from all political activity, including voting, and not allowed to meet with outsiders, Cambodian or foreign, except for family members. He may leave the house only with the court's permission.

Kem Sokha was head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party when he was arrested in September 2017 based on an old video that showed him speaking at a seminar about receiving advice from U.S. pro-democracy groups. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government said it was proof of collusion with a foreign power to illegally take power.

His arrest marked the beginning of a fierce campaign by the government to use the courts — widely considered to be under its influence — to silence its critics in the political and media spheres or drive them out of the country.

Kem Sokha’s trial started in January 2020 but was soon suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak and resumed in 2022. The maximum sentence would have been 30 years.

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Peck reported from Bangkok.

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