HONG KONG - Three members of the bodyguard unit of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen were convicted Friday of assaulting a pair of opposition lawmakers outside the country’s National Assembly in October.
The three men were given four-year prison terms with three years suspended, meaning they will serve one year.
The brazen attack was condemned by the United States, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). Human rights groups have said the assault was part of a wider campaign against the political opposition in Cambodia, where Hun Sen has governed for more than 30 years.
The leading Cambodian opposition figure, Sam Rainsy, is in exile abroad because he faces imprisonment over a defamation charge. On Thursday, the police sought to detain Kem Sokha, a top figure in the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which Sam Rainsy leads.
Kem Sokha has not been charged with a crime but is wanted for questioning in a court case connected to what the authorities say is his extramarital affair with a hairdresser in Phnom Penh, the capital.
Kem Sokha has refused to appear in court over the case, insisting that it is political in nature. However, the government has said that his refusal to appear is itself a crime, and on Friday prosecutors issued charges against him for flouting a summons.
In response, the Cambodia National Rescue Party warned that its supporters would stage a mass protest if Kem Sokha were arrested.
The assault in October on the lawmakers Kung Sophea and Nhay Chamraoen followed a pro-government demonstration calling on Kem Sokha to step down as first vice president of the National Assembly.
The lawmakers suffered severe injuries from the assault, in which they were dragged from separate cars and beaten by a dozen or more people.
Kung Sophea suffered back injuries, a broken nose, bruises on his head and legs, and a ruptured eardrum. Nhay Chamraoen suffered a broken nose, tooth and wrist and a fracture of a bone in his face that required surgery to save his sight in one eye. The two were sent to Thailand for treatment.
Mao Hoeun, Chay Sarit and Sot Vanny, the three men convicted of the attack, denied they were acting under orders, claiming they had merely been watching the protest and then retaliated when the lawmakers shouted insults at them, calling them puppets of the Vietnamese.
The lawmakers denied making any such insults, and there is no video evidence of their doing so.
“It’s basically a slap on the wrist,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said of the men’s prison sentences. “These people were leading a mob,” attacking two members of Parliament “in a brazen, brutal attack.”
Human Rights Watch said in a report issued Thursday that the protest itself appeared to have been organized by the government and that the assault “had all the hallmarks of an operation carried out by Cambodian state security forces.”
The case against the three men was intended to prevent further inquiry into the involvement of Hun Sen’s governing party in the attacks, the report said.
Phay Siphan, a government spokesman, called the report “baseless” and accused the lawmakers of provoking the attack.
The attack came a day after protesters confronted Hun Sen in Paris. He blamed the opposition and warned in a speech, “If someone comes back at you tomorrow in Phnom Penh with the same game, don’t be angry,” according to the Human Rights Watch report.
The increase of pressure on the political opposition is part of an established pattern during election cycles in Cambodia, said Sebastian Strangio, a journalist based in Phnom Penh and the author of the book “Hun Sen’s Cambodia.”
“Hun Sen tightens the screws, people are hauled into court, and defamation cases fly,” he said. “Then, after a period of tightening which keeps opponents off balance, the shackles are released and there’s a period of loosening designed to placate international critics.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that late last year, Hun Sen expressed concern about “colour revolutions” and the possibility of being ousted by a street protest movement. He ordered the military, including his powerful bodyguard unit, to prevent such an uprising, according to the report.
Elections in Cambodia are scheduled for 2018. In the last general election, in 2013, the Cambodian People’s Party of Hun Sen retained control, but with a smaller majority than before. That may have contributed to the increasing pressure on the opposition, Strangio said.
“He’s concerned about losing the next election,” Strangio said. “I think the CPP realises it’s lost a lot of popularity, and they’re determined to hold onto power by whatever means necessary.”