Cambodian Court Begins Trial of Former RFA Reporters Charged With Espionage
A court in Cambodia on Friday began trial proceedings against two former Radio Free Asia journalists accused of espionage, with the defendants acknowledging that they had continued to provide information to their past employer after it had closed its bureau in Phnom Penh.
The two denied, however, that the material they had sent to RFA included “state secrets.”
Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin were taken into custody in November 2017 and charged with “illegally collecting information for a foreign source” under Article 445 of the Criminal Code. They have since had production of pornography added to the charges against them and face a prison term of from seven to 15 years.
