Cambodia’s Highest Court Dissolves Main Opposition Party

Cambodia’s highest court on Thursday dissolved the main opposition party, eliminating the most popular and viable challenger to the country’s authoritarian leader before elections next year.

Human rights groups and the United Nations said the decision to shutter the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or C.N.R.P., would render the country essentially a one-party state, ending its post-Khmer Rouge experiment with pluralistic democracy.

The ruling followed a lawsuit filed last month by the government against the opposition, asserting that it was involved in a United States-backed plot to overthrow the Cambodian People’s Party and its powerful leader, Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The decision, which will see scores of opposition officials barred from politics and their party stripped of its parliamentary seats, was the culmination of a crackdown in which the opposition leader was jailed, media outlets closed and activists harassed, with a particular focus on groups linked to the United States.

The International Commission of Jurists, a nongovernmental rights group, said the hearing and Judge Dith Munty’s role in it made “a mockery of justice.”

The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, warned last month that the dissolution of the opposition would be a dangerous move toward one-party rule, saying it “would affect Cambodians’ voice and choice at all levels of government.”

UCJ, UNILORIN.