The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of Mr. Sam Rainsy, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of Cambodia, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/188/13(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 187th session (October 2010),

Taking into account the information and observations which the Cambodian delegation to the 124th IPU Assembly provided to the Committee at the session it held during the Assembly, as well as of a letter from the President of the National Assembly dated 10 February 2011; also taking into account information provided by the sources on 2 March and 12 April 2011,

Recalling that Opposition Leader Mr. Sam Rainsy, in judgments handed down in January and September 2010, was sentenced to a total of 12 years’ imprisonment and a heavy fine for (a) having pulled out border post #185 marking the Cambodian/Vietnamese border in a village in Svay Rieng province and inciting racial hatred, and (b) divulging false information by reportedly having published a map showing a false border with Viet Nam in his attempt to prove that the border marker encroached upon Cambodian territory; that, owing to those verdicts, he will be barred from standing in the 2013 elections by virtue of Article 34(2) of the Law on the Election of Members of the National Assembly, which stipulates that persons who are sentenced to imprisonment for a felony or misdemeanour by the courts and who have not been rehabilitated are not eligible to stand as candidates for election to the National Assembly,

Considering that the verdict whereby Mr. Sam Rainsy was found guilty of destroying public property was upheld in March 2011 by the Supreme Court and that, on 15 March 2011, the National Assembly stripped Mr. Sam Rainsy of his parliamentary mandate by virtue of Article 34 of the Law on the Election of Members of the National Assembly, which stipulates that members convicted at final instance of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment forfeit their membership in the National Assembly; that the appeal against the verdict regarding the divulging of false information is scheduled for hearing on 10 May 2011,

Noting that no one disputes the fact that the process of demarcating the border between Viet Nam and Cambodia is under way, that border marker #185 was a temporary wooden post and that the government recognized it was not a real and legal border marker and officially decided to dismantle it, and that there is at present no map recognized by Viet Nam and Cambodia as being official and binding,

Considering in this respect that Prime Minister Hun Sen stated the following in response to a letter whereby the Speaker of the National Assembly had forwarded to him questions raised by members of parliament belonging to the Sam Rainsy Party regarding the border demarcation process: “In the area surrounding the tentative post #185, in particular posts #184 to 187 along the border between Cambodia and Viet Nam, the joint technical group from the two countries is continuing its study on the actual ground in order to search for material evidence necessary for the determination of the real location of those border posts. Because the joint technical group from the two countries has not planted border post #185 yet, the border demarcation work, which is the work of the joint technical group after the planting of that post, has not started either.”

Noting that, in response to the issue of whether or not the Prime Minister’s letter existed, the leader of the Cambodian delegation stated that Mr. Sam Rainsy’s case was a judicial matter, that the judiciary had decided and that the case should not be drawn into the political arena,

1. Thanks the leader of the Cambodian delegation for his observations;

2. Is nevertheless unable toshare his view that thisis a judicial issue, and reaffirms that Mr. Sam Rainsy’s gesture of pulling out temporary border markers was clearly a political gesture, and that, consequently, the courts should never have been resorted to for resolving a political matter;

3. Affirms that, given the official recognition, including by the Prime Minister, that there is no such thing as a legal border post #185 and the absence of any official map as the border demarcation is still under way, Mr. Sam Rainsy cannot possibly have committed a crime by pulling out wooden posts, which were illegally driven in, nor is the accusation of divulging false information a tenable one;

4. Considers, therefore, that it is becoming ever more urgent to review Mr. Sam Rainsy’s case and to rehabilitate him, and calls on the authorities, including Parliament, to take action to this end without delay so as to enable Mr. Sam Rainsy to resume his rightful place as a member of the National Assembly and to stand as a candidate in the next parliamentary elections;

5. Urges the National Assembly also to take action to amend the procedure for the lifting of parliamentary immunity in such a manner as to ensure respect for the rights of the parliamentarians concerned to be heard in an open session, with a decision to be taken by secret ballot, so that immunity can serve its primary aim of safeguarding the independence of parliament by shielding its members from proceedings which may be politically motivated;

6. Requests the Secretary General to convey this resolution to the parliamentary authorities and to the sources;

7. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 125th IPU Assembly (October 2011).

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