TAKHMAO: The Prime Minister of Cambodia has made it clear that he will not pardon opposition leader Sam Rainsy. The Prime Minister confirmed this matter during a press briefing in Takhmao on Thursday morning, 20 October, while he was renewing his voter registration information after officially changing his date of birth earlier this year.

“No way! I have favored him twice, but this traitor does not change and continues to destroy Cambodia," he said. "I am not making an exception, so I am moving to eradicate the extremist ideology of these three generations of traitors."

The Prime Minister also said that the Royal Government was ready to resist any form of insurgency from Sam Rainsy.

"We are preparing for the worst. If you are trying to provoke a riot, we are not afraid to use force in order to prevent vandalism and sectarianism. If you dare to use weapons or armed violence, you will also face weapons," he said.

The Prime Minister questioned Sam Rainsy about how many of his forces could resist the Royal Government of Cambodia, as all armed forces are now prepared to arrest Sam Rainsy if he returns to Cambodia.

The Supreme Patriarch of the Thammayut order of Cambodia, Bour Kry, has also denounced and condemned Sam Rainsy for his opposition of the Royal Government of Cambodia. Several ministries, and state institutions have also issued messages in support of the Prime Minister, while the General Commissioner of the Police has also stated his intention to arrest Sam Rainsy and place him in prison. The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces General Command have also stated it is ready to defeat any form of insurgency against the government in Cambodia.

Additionally, 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 inter-provincial agreements to cut off Cambodian territory for Montagnard Vietnamese people to live.

Sam Rainsy is currently facing numerous court cases involving charges of 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 charges.

^{PHOTO: KOK KY}