PHNOM PENH, June 25 — Cambodia’s Supreme Court upheld 14-year prison sentences today for two journalists convicted of treason for posting a photo taken in a military-restricted area after border clashes with Thailand, a judge told AFP.
Pheap Phara and Phorn Sopheap were arrested in July last year after posting a photo on Facebook that appeared to show them with Cambodian soldiers at the centuries-old Ta Krabei temple, located on the disputed frontier with Thailand.
Thai media outlets later republished the image, alleging it showed unplaced landmines in the background.
The two journalists were convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison in December for “supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defence”.
An appeal court upheld their convictions in March, so they made a final appeal to the country’s highest court.
Judge Taing Sunlay, the deputy chief of the Supreme Court, told AFP that the appeal there was rejected today.
“The court has decided to uphold the verdict of the appeal court,” Taing Sunlay said.
Am Sam Ath, operations director of rights group LICADHO, told AFP that the convictions could “affect press freedom”.
Cambodia ranks 151st out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders advocacy group’s World Press Freedom Index.
The journalists’ lawyer could not be reached immediately for comment.
A decades-long border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia erupted into several rounds of clashes last year, killing dozens of people and displacing more than a million in July and December.
Thailand has repeatedly accused Cambodia of planting new landmines in contested border areas that have wounded patrolling Thai soldiers, while Cambodia has denied the allegation.
The South-east Asian neighbours signed a ceasefire agreement in late December, but tensions on the border remain, with both sides trading accusations of truce violations. — AFP
