Cambodia passes law to strip citizenship of people convicted of treason

Measure comes amid sustained crackdown connected opponents of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

Cambodian lawmakers person passed a instrumentality giving the authorities the powerfulness to portion citizenship from people who “collude” with overseas countries.

The instrumentality passed connected Monday empowers authorities to revoke the citizenship of anyone convicted of conspiring with overseas countries, scheming against Cambodian interests, oregon committing acts starring to “destruction of sovereignty, territorial integrity and nationalist security”.

The authorities was approved by each but 5 lawmakers successful the 125-member National Assembly, which is dominated by the long-governing Cambodian People’s Party.

Under the law, revocation of citizenship is to beryllium decided by a committee established astatine the petition of Interior Minister Sar Sokha.

While the authorities indispensable inactive beryllium approved by Cambodia’s precocious house and the king, these steps are wide considered formalities.

The measurement comes amid a sustained crackdown connected opponents of the governing party, the governmental conveyance of erstwhile strongman person Hun Sen and his son, existent Prime Minister Hun Manet.

In June, Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for much than 3 decades earlier his lad took the reins successful 2023, said Cambodia needed to instrumentality enactment against nationals who “side with overseas nations”.

Numerous salient governmental figures person fled Cambodia to debar apprehension amid the crackdown, including Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua, the cofounders of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party.

Before the parliamentary ballot connected the law, a conjugation of 50 rights groups connected Sunday warned that the authorities would person “a disastrously chilling effect connected the state of code of each Cambodian citizens”.

“The imaginable for maltreatment successful the implementation of this vaguely worded instrumentality to people radical connected the ground of their ethnicity, governmental opinions, speech, and activism is simply excessively precocious to accept,” the radical said.

“The authorities has galore powers, but they should not person the powerfulness to arbitrarily determine who is and is not a Cambodian.”