PARIS: A French court trying two ex-bodyguards for former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen over a 1997 massacre postponed its verdict due Friday after prosecutors asked for time to investigate new evidence.
The two main suspects, Hing Bun Heang, now 68, and Huy Piseth, 69, have been on trial in absentia, charged over a 1997 grenade attack on a leading opposition figure who is a French citizen.
Several grenades detonated on March 30, 1997 during an opposition rally of around 200 people in Phnom Penh denouncing state corruption.
At least 16 people were killed and 150 injured.
Sam Rainsy, a former finance minister and leading opposition figure, was the target of the attack that the NGO Human Rights Watch has called “an open wound in Cambodia.” He was lightly injured.
The two suspects reside in Cambodia. Neither has asked for legal representation.
“I have learnt much from witnesses who had never been questioned before,” said lead prosecutor Isabelle Poinso. “We need to shine a light on some remaining grey areas.”
The court approved her request to suspend proceedings, to resume at a later date.
As the trial got under way in Paris on Wednesday, the defendants’ box was empty as was the bench for the defense lawyers. But Rainsy and his wife were both present.
In 2020 France issued an arrest warrant for both men on suspicion of attempted murder, for which they could be sentenced to life in prison.
Rainsy, 76, who lives in exile in France and has had French citizenship since 1974, in November 2000 filed a legal complaint over the incident, triggering the investigation.
Two decades later, the French judiciary came to the conclusion — backed by findings from the United States’ FBI and the United Nations, among others — that Hing Bun Heang had recruited the attackers, and that Huy Piseth had facilitated their escape.
Hun Sen, a former army general who was Cambodia’s longest-serving head of government, first became prime minister in 1985 aged 32.
He currently serves as president of Cambodia’s Senate.
French court delays Cambodian 1997 massacre trial verdict
https://arab.news/gnbzp
French court delays Cambodian 1997 massacre trial verdict
- The two main suspects, Hing Bun Heang, now 68, and Huy Piseth, 69, have been on trial in absentia
- Several grenades detonated on March 30, 1997 during an opposition rally of around 200 people in Phnom Penh denouncing state corruption
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
