PARIS: The 17th Chamber of the Paris Judicial Court has issued a statement confirming facts related to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lawsuit against Sam Rainsy, confirming that the court ruled Rainsy had indeed defamed the Prime Minister and lost the case.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, 11 October 2022, the Paris court confirmed that it had deemed Sam Rainsy's allegations that Prime Minister Hun Sen was behind the helicopter crash that caused Hok Lundy’s death as defamation.

The statement read, "Allegations that Hun Sen was the mastermind behind two politically motivated assassinations and of having sought to conceal the circumstances is, by nature, detrimental to the honor and reputation of the civil party. They will therefore be considered as defamatory towards Hun Sen.”

The court added that Sam Rainsy's evidence and claims were too weak to be valid.

“Thus, it was clearly judged that the accusations of Sam Rainsy were in no way substantiated and still less proven,” read the press release.

“Moreover, the Court could not do otherwise than to qualify the factual basis alleged by the defendant as “weak.” Where, in law, it must be sufficient; in reality, it is non-existent here.”

On Monday, 10 October, the 17th Chamber of the Paris Judicial Court ruled in favor of Prime Minister Hun Sen in a lawsuit filed against Sam Rainsy. The court ruled that Sam Rainsy’s allegation that the 2008 helicopter crash that caused the death of the Prime Minister’s former national police chief, Hok Lundy, was defamatory.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony for students of Phnom Penh International University on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that he had filed the lawsuit against Sam Rainsy in France because he wanted to seek justice for his own innocence.

"What does Hun Sen want? Why [would I] follow you all the way to your house? Hun Sen wants to be proven innocent, he does not want anything else,” said the Prime Minister.