Eleven Cambodian opposition members and activists have been jailed on insurrection charges, including three who received 20-year sentences, a defence lawyer has said.

Rights groups said the draconian penalties, for taking part in clashes in July 2014 over the closure of a key protest site in the capital, were imposed as leader HE intensifies efforts to smother dissent in a kingdom he has led for more than three decades.

Those jailed are from the opposition Cambodian National Rescue party (CNRP). They were arrested during the clashes with authorities last year that left dozens wounded on both sides.

Tuesday’s shock ruling caught lawyers, rights groups and CNRP supporters by surprise.

“This is a very serious sentencing. We lawyers cannot accept these convictions,” Sam Sokong, one of the group’s defence counsels, said, adding that his eight other clients received seven years in jail.

Local rights group LICADHO described the proceedings as a “show trial with a predetermined ending, apparently set up only to intimidate the CNRP”, adding that the sentencing was carried out without the presence of most of the group’s lawyers...

“The 11 activists were sent to jail after the lawyers boycotted the trial today,” Sam Sokong, lawyer for the defence, said after the ruling.

He added that the lawyers had boycotted the proceedings because the court had called for the trial to resume on a daily basis.

“The court did not listen to the lawyers and continued the trial.… They moved quickly and decided to issue a guilty verdict,” he said.

BOFH wrote:Here's what happens when your defense lawyer boycotts your trial. Of course The Guardian just politely forgot about that part.

“The 11 activists were sent to jail after the lawyers boycotted the trial today,” Sam Sokong, lawyer for the defence, said after the ruling.

He added that the lawyers had boycotted the proceedings because the court had called for the trial to resume on a daily basis.

“The court did not listen to the lawyers and continued the trial.… They moved quickly and decided to issue a guilty verdict,” he said.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/f ... -11-jailed

Observers said the swiftness and severity of Tuesday's sentences could be a response to the CNRP's boycott of last week's vote and signaled a deep freeze in relations between the two parties after recent apparent improvements in ties.

"There may be a connection with the fact that the opposition walked out of parliament last week when the NGO law went through," Andrea Giorgetta from the International Federation of Human Rights, told AFP.