Phnom Penh: The son of the Interior Minister has confirmed that his father has gone to France for a medical checkup and has not met any politicians during his visit to the French capital. Sor Sokha is a Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. His father, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Sar Kheng, left for France last week on a 14-day trip. His departure prompted a rash of conspiracy theories about the reasons for the trip, most notably by exiled former opposition leader, Sam Rainsy.

In the day’s following Sar Kheng’s departure for France, Rainsy took to Facebook to claim that Kheng would be holding talks in France with a view to forming an interim government for the kingdom. He repeated those claims in a Facebook post on Sunday, but this has been completely dismissed by the Interior Minister’s son. He also took to Facebook to say that his father’s trip to France involves “no politics” and is purely for health reasons.

Sar Sokha says “false statements” made by the likes of Rainsy are “fabrications to mislead national and international opinion for the benefit of their political interests and those of their allies”. He says the Cambodian People’s Party, unlike Rainsy’s former National Rescue Party, is the “only party firmly adhering to internal unity and that no one or any group can divide it.”

He added that the actions of politicians who act only for their own ambitions is a “clear reflection of the character of these politicians without professional ethics, distorting false stories, polluting society and the political environment in Cambodia”. He labelled the rumours around his father’s trip to France as “vicious slander”.