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Cambodia pardons Australian film-maker James Ricketson Cambodia pardons Australian film-maker James Ricketson
(35 minutes later)
Cambodia has pardoned an Australian film-maker who was jailed for six years in August on espionage charges. An Australian filmmaker jailed for espionage in Cambodia has received a royal pardon and been released, less than a month after he was sentenced to six years in prison in a case observers criticised as a farce.
A municipal court in Phnom Penh ordered the release of James Ricketson after he received a royal pardon. “Having fully understood the royal decree, James Ricketson … should be freed,” it said on Friday. James Ricketson, 69, was sentenced in late August after he was arrested in June last year after he flew a drone over a rally held by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue party (CNRP), which was effectively banned months later.
Ricketson, 69, was arrested in June 2017 after he was photographed flying a drone above a rally organised by the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue party before communal elections. “Convict James Stanforth Ricketson is pardoned,” said the royal decree, which was signed by the acting head of state, Say Chhum.
The film-maker, who has been visiting Cambodia for more than 20 years, producing documentaries about the country and its people, was charged with espionage but it remains unclear for whom he was spying. It added that the request for the pardon came from the country’s prime minister, Hun Sen.
It was not immediately clear whether Ricketson had been released from prison. His family could not immediately be reached for comment. Ricketson‘s lawyer Kong Sam Onn confirmed he had been released and was now with his family.
More soon … His son Jesse said the family was “relieved and excited” to have Ricketson back.
“It has been a really tough 16 months and I’m just kind of in shock now,” Jesse said, expressing gratitude to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni for “bringing this nightmare to an end”.
The six-day trial – which featured a surprise appearance by the Hollywood director Peter Weir, who served as a character witness for his friend – ended with the court convicting Ricketson for “espionage and collecting harmful information that could affect national defence”.
The prosecution had accused Ricketson of working as a filmmaker in Cambodia for years as a front for espionage, but the verdict did not mention the country that he was allegedly representing as a spy.
Human Rights Watch called the trial proceedings a “ludicrous charade”.
Ricketson‘s release came after a series of activists and opposition lawmakers were freed in the weeks after July’s national election, which critics have said was neither free nor fair.
The CNRP was dissolved in the lead-up to the controversial poll, stamping out the only real competition faced by Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s party. It paved the way for all 125 parliament seats to be filled by his party.
After the vote Hun Sen – who has been in power for more than three decades – returned to a pattern of easing up on dissent.
Ricketson’s pardon comes just a few days before Hun Sen was scheduled to travel to New York to attend the United Nations general assembly.
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