IPU “Deeply Concerned” by Lifting of Parliamentary Immunity of Cambodian Opposition MPs

February 10, 2010
Source: SRP

IPU “DEEPLY CONCERNED” BY LIFTING OF PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY OF CAMBODIAN OPPOSITION MPs

In a late January decision of its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians, the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) said it “is deeply concerned at the lifting of Mr. Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity for the same reasons as the ones it has expressed in the cases of opposition parliamentarians Ho Vann and Mu Sochua, namely that without proper examination of the request for the lifting of immunity, without an open and public parliamentary debate, during which the parliamentarians concerned can present their arguments, without a secret vote, parliamentary immunity is reduced to a mere formality and is thus meaningless.”

The IPU also “expresses further concern at the charges laid against Mr. Sam Rainsy which, in the light of the information before it, appear highly questionable.”

Full text of the IPU decision at http://tinyurl.com/yhcb9kj

SRP Members of Parliament