PHNOM PENH (AFP) - A Cambodian court Wednesday upheld ousted royalist leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh's 18-month jail sentence over the illegal sale of his former political party's headquarters.
Ranariddh, who remains in self-imposed exile, was convicted of fraud in March after he used the proceeds from the sale to purchase another property in his name.
"The appeal court found enough evidence of guilt against Prince Norodom Ranariddh for breach of trust," said appeal court Judge Thou Mony.
An official from the Prince's new political party said the verdict was politically motivated.
"It is unjust for the Prince ...It is the objective of someone to prevent the Prince from entering the country," said You Hokry, general secretary of the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP).
NRP officials fear that Ranariddh will not return to Cambodia, where he faces immediate arrest, in time to contest general elections in 2008.
Ranariddh, who was sacked as president of the royalist Funcinpec party last October, has remained overseas since being sentenced in March to jail over the 3.6-million-dollar real estate deal.
The conviction was another blow against the embattled prince, a former premier who for years had been Prime Minister Hun Sen's coalition government partner.
Following his ouster from Funcinpec, the prince's former party allies shunned him and an adultery complaint filed by his wife further battered his reputation.
Ranariddh has faced jail before but was saved by a royal pardon from his father, former king Norodom Sihanouk, in 1998 after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup with the Khmer Rouge a year earlier.
Sarith's quote:
Hun Sen's main goal is to eliminate his opponents so he will be a prime minister of Cambodia for life. He did to Sam Rainsy Party, but he did not succeed. Now he is doing to Prince Norodom Rannaridth. Unfortunately, Prince Norodom Rannaridth has no
Cambodian people back him up. Therefore, he can't return to Cambodia and run for a prime minister again. Cambodia is not a democratic system. It is a system that is running by a dictatorship of Hun Sen. It just like Burma. We are the Cambodian people. We change all these if we work as a team to eliminate Hun Sen from power.
Date: 10/08/2007
Url:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20 ....
Author: Yahoo news
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