00:00Cambodia's king has pardoned former opposition leader Kem Sokha for a treason conviction just weeks after he lost an appeal
00:07to overturn that verdict.
00:09The 72-year-old co-founder of the defunct Cambodia National Rescue Party has been held under house arrest since
00:17he was found guilty back in 2023.
00:19He was accused of conspiring with a foreign power to topple then-premier Han Sen.
00:27Last month, a court in Phnom Penh upheld his 27-year sentence and banned him from leaving the country for
00:33five years once that term ends.
00:36The royal decree released on Monday said the pardon only applied to the original sentence.
00:41Kem Sokha's case was among the most prominent in a sweeping crackdown on opponents of the Cambodian People's Party, which
00:49has ruled Cambodia for more than four decades.
00:51He was among only a few remaining opposition figures in the country after many others fled in the wake of
00:57a Supreme Court ruling in 2017 that banned the Cambodia National Rescue Party.
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