UN rights experts on Tuesday condemned as a "shameful nadir" Cambodia's sentencing of an autistic teenager to eight months in prison for sending Telegram messages that were deemed insulting to the government.
The son of an opposition figure, 16-year-old Kak Sovann Chhay was arrested in late June after posting messages on a private Telegram group, and has been detained for more than four months.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday sentenced him to eight months in prison, under incitement charges and for insulting public officials.
"The conviction of a minor with an autism spectrum disorder is a shameful nadir in the authorities' continuing campaign of intimidation and violence against civil society and opposition activists and affiliates," they said.
The boy's father, Kak Komphea, is a former member of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party and has been in jail since June last year.
"We see the conviction and the conditions imposed on his liberty as a very transparent attempt by the authorities to prevent his mother from demonstrating for the release of her husband," the UN experts said.
Kak Komphea is among more than 150 opposition figures facing a closed-door trial for allegedly agitating for the toppling of the ruling party, which is led by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The UN experts accused Cambodia of "weaponising" its court system to clamp down on dissent after the recent convictions of 15 human rights defenders and political activists.
"We are truly alarmed that the courts are again being weaponised to silence any form of dissent, including peaceful activism that is protected under the right to freedom of expression," they said.