February 22, 2012

OPPOSITION MP CHAN CHENG’S CASE FOLLOWED BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

SRP National Assembly member Chan Cheng whose parliamentary immunity
was suspended in December 2011, is now back in Cambodia after staying
two months in France.

His case is being followed by the European Parliament. On January 9,
2012, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) learned that “the
[Cambodian] ruling party [was], once again, fabricating charges
against an opposition member of parliament [Chan Cheng], a few weeks
before Senate elections. This confirms that the strategy of Cambodia's
ruling party is to use a politically subservient judiciary to crack
down on all government critics.”

The concerned MEPs are in the opinion that “the European Union cannot
continue with its ‘business as usual’ approach to its relations with
the Cambodian Government. Article 1 of the ongoing cooperation/aid
agreement between the EU and Cambodia states that Cambodia has an
obligation to respect human rights.”

The corresponding official text that is circulating at the European
Parliament is titled “Cambodia: opposition member of parliament [Chan
Cheng] harassed, continuing violation of democratic principles and
judiciary system used to eliminate political opponents.”

Questions asked by MEPs containing the above remarks have been
translated and  published in 23 languages and will soon receive
appropriate answers from the European Commission, a major donor
institution.

For more details
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2011-012445+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN


SRP Members of Parliament