Police investigations into plotting charges against former CNRP members, including Mu Sochua, relied mostly on their public Facebook posts and interviews with pro-opposition media Radio Free Asia.
The European Union Parliament last Thursday condemned the political persecution faced by Cambodian opposition parties ahead of elections in June and 2023, even suggesting the possibility of a full EBA suspension if the balloting was not free and fair. Former CNRP president Kem Sokha paid his respects to Prime Minister Hun Sen at the funeral of the latter’s brother, Hun Neng.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution calling for “overdue” sanctions against Cambodian leaders responsible for rights violations, and for E.U. nations to suspend bilateral aid to Cambodia, adding that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling CPP “should not be considered the legitimate ruling party.”
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia has filed court action against the E.U. seeking to reverse the bloc’s partial suspension of trade benefits over human rights violations.
Cambodia’s pandemic-hit garment industry took another blow on Wednesday, losing some of its duty-free trade access to the E.U., with the bloc noting that the government had failed to make political reforms to avoid the penalties.
With sinking exports and suspended production lines, the garment industry and a labor union continued appeals for help from the government and others this week, respectively renewing calls for a delayed partial withdrawal of trade benefits and quicker processing of worker payouts.
Local industry groups have asked the E.U. to postpone the partial withdrawal of Cambodia’s tariff-free access to the European bloc for a year to allow the garment sector time to recover from the ongoing pandemic-spurred economic crisis.
The E.U. has listed Cambodia as one of 12 “high-risk” countries with deficient anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing efforts, but the government on Friday said officials were working hard to get the nation off international watch lists.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said potential closures of garment factories in coming months would be due to novel coronavirus quarantine measures cutting manufacturers off from Chinese materials suppliers, not the result of the E.U. suspending trade benefits.
Garment workers say they’re worried they could lose their jobs if companies are forced to pay tariffs to export clothes and other goods to Europe, one of Cambodia’s largest export markets.
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