The Phnom Penh court has decided to postpone the hearing in the treason case against opposition leader Kem Sokha, pushing proceedings back to early next year.
In a notice dated December 16 and made public on Wednesday, the Phnom Penh Court of Appeal said the criminal hearing, which had been scheduled for December 18, 2025, would be delayed until early 2026. No new date was specified.
The case, which centres on allegations of collusion with a foreign state, has been repeatedly postponed at both the trial court and appeal court levels.
On November 27, the Court of Appeal issued a summons ordering Kem Sokha, the former leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, to appear in court on December 18 in connection with the collusion charge. The summons stated that the alleged offence of treason was committed in Cambodia and elsewhere between 1993 and September 3, 2017, an offence punishable under Article 443 of the Criminal Code.
Kem Sokha’s defence lawyer, Pheng Heng, wrote on Facebook that on December 15, he had coincidentally met judges and court clerks and asked about the upcoming hearing. He said they told him the trial would not be postponed.
However, Pheng Heng said that on the morning of December 17, he received an official notice announcing a delay, without any explanation. He added that he had not been informed in advance and suggested that the court officials he had spoken to earlier may also have been unaware of the decision.
Suon Rida, a senior official of the Grassroots Democracy Party and a former lawmaker from the Cambodia National Rescue Party, said a single delay might not be an issue. But he questioned the credibility of Cambodia’s justice system, given the repeated postponements, asking where justice stood for Kem Sokha and for citizens affected by the case.
On March 3, 2023, Kem Sokha was sentenced to 27 years in prison after being convicted of collusion with foreign powers. The court accused him of conspiring with the United States to overthrow the Cambodian government and imposed a lifetime ban on his civil and political rights.
Kem Sokha reappeared in public on July 31, 2025, for the first time since his conviction, attending a ceremony to honour soldiers killed in fighting along the Cambodia-Thailand border. His appearance followed diplomatic intervention by United States President Donald Trump, which led to a ceasefire in late July.
Cambodian courts have alleged that the United States was the mastermind behind the case, naming organisations including USAID, the National Democratic Institute, and the International Republican Institute as being involved.
In November 2019, during Donald Trump’s first term as president, he wrote to Hun Sen, then Cambodia’s prime minister, stating that the United States had no involvement in any plan to overthrow the Cambodian government with Kem Sokha.
