Focus on ‘Secession’ Trial Shifts Back to Mam Sonando
Independent radio station owner Mam Sonando mounted a spirited defense during the third and last day of testimony at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday in his trial for allegedly leading a secessionist group. At time raising his voice, waving his arms and grabbing his head in disbelief, the slight 71-year-old denied the prosecution’s accounts of a pair of meetings-one in Phnom Penh and another in the U.S.-at which he allegedly helped lay plans for the secession. … Later in the afternoon, Lour Rabo, deputy director of the internal security department at the national police, went on to link Mr. Sonando to Sourn Serey Ratha, president of the U.S.-based Khmer People Power Movement (KPPM). … “I came to the U.S. as a reporter because I wanted to meet Khmer people living abroad and because they supported my radio station and wanted to meet me,” Mr. Sonando told the court. …
