Malaysia: Authorities detain Cambodian Oppn Party's VP Mu Sochua

The immigration authorities of Malaysia have detained the No. 2 official of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, Mu Sochua on November 7. The opposition party has been banned in Cambodia. The moves comes just before the exiled leaders of the party planned a return of Cambodian party leaders including Mu Sochua and Sam Rainsy, the founder of the party for the independence day of Cambodia. Meanwhile, the regional parties backed Phnom Penh's bid to block the return of leaders as they are accused of strategising to overthrow the government. 

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'Won't be deported'

Saifuddin Abdullah, the Foreign Minister of Malasia indicated that the Vice President of CNRP would not be deported. Sochua was detained by the immigration authorities at the Kuala Lumpur airport, where she landed from Jakarta. Followed by her detention, two other youth activists from the party were also arrested. Even though there was a request by Cambodia to deport the officials from the opposition, the Foreign Minister said that Malaysia makes its own decision without any foreign interference. 

Saifuddin Abdullah said, “We are not in the position to deport people and neither do we like doing that,” he told reporters. “We are a pro-democracy government. We follow things very closely but at the same time, we cannot interfere with what happens in other countries.”

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Politicians planned to return home

The leaders of the party led by Sam Rainsy had planned to return home on November 3 with his followers to fuel a popular movement in order to oust the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Hun Sen who is an autocratic leader. Their plan, however, suffered a setback when Thailand blocked party leader Sam Rainsy from passing through the country. Furthermore, even Human Rights Watch slammed Malaysia for the arrest of Sochua and called it 'ludicrous and unacceptable'. The Asia deputy director of HRW, Phil Robertson also believes that CNRP Vice President has done 'nothing wrong'.

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(With AP inputs)