Phnom Penh (FN), Feb.02 – A legal complaint lodged by the leader of a new political party against a senior government official for defamation, has been turned down by Phnom Penh Municipality Court.

On his Facebook page, Suon Serey Ratha, President of the People’s Power Party who has filed a lawsuit against Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong for defamation, said that the decision by the Phnom Penh Municipality Court’s Deputy Prosecutor was unfair to his party and that he would prepare to take the case to appeal court.

“It is another injustice created in the court. It is an illustration that the court is just a political tool of the powerful people within the Cambodian People Party to be utilized to quash the dissidents,” the party president wrote on his Facebook page.

“When the People’s Power Party lodged a counter-complaint using the same legal instruments, the court dare not take any action, and so we will use our right to go on to the appeal,” he added.

Serey Ratha filed a lawsuit against Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong on Dec. 21, 2015 for ‘Defamation’ on the ground that the latter allegedly said on Dec.7, 2015 after a meeting with the new U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia that members of the PPP had been involved in terrorist acts and that his remarks caused harm to the PPP’s reputation.

However, Hor Namhong’s lawyer said comments made by his client were nothing wrong since all were based on the court’s verdicts rendered to Serey Ratha and his three accomplices for treason to the nation.