PHNOM PENH: A Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge has sentenced Sam Rainsy to life in prison and deprived him of his political rights on charges of "handing over to a foreign state" in connection to a case where he signed four agreements to cut off Cambodian territory for Montagnard Vietnamese people to live.

In addition to convicting and depriving him of his political rights, the judge, Sin Sovannaroth, has also issued an arrest warrant for Sam Rainsy to face his verdict in front of the accused.

Sam Rainsy is currently facing numerous court cases such as on conspiracy, incitement to cause serious chaos to social security and incitement to disobey the military that started after he attempted to return to Cambodia in 2019 and reestablish the Cambodian National Rescue Movement (CNRM), following the dissolution of the CNRP in 2017. For this the court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, and in March 2021 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for "murder" in connection with an attempted coup to overthrow the government on his return to Cambodia on 9 November 2019, along with other crimes.