Malaysia deports Cambodian worker for calling Hun Sen ‘despicable’

Malaysia has deported a Cambodian worker after she called the country’s long-time former leader Hun Sen “a despicable guy,” an activist in Malaysia and a friend who knew her told Radio Free Asia.

Nuon Toeun, a domestic worker over the past six years, was arrested at her employer’s home Saturday in the state of Selangor, which surrounds Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, and deported Monday, according to Ahmad Jamal, the chairman of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party’s Refugee Coordinating Committee in Malaysia. 

According to Ahmad Jamal, the Malaysian police told Nuon Toeun that they arrested her for criticizing the Phnom Penh government on social media. 

Malaysian police didn’t not respond to requests for comment, but a friend of Nuon Toeun confirmed to RFA that she had told her this was the reason she was arrested.

Ahmad Jamal also said Nuon Toeun was escorted to Cambodia by an embassy official, and she was handed over to Cambodian authorities at 7 p.m. by Malaysian immigration officers.

She is now in Correction Center 2, also known as Prey Sar prison, in Phnom Penh, Nut Savana, the spokesman of the Cambodian prison department told RFA.

“She is being charged with inciting to commit acts that cause serious disturbance to social security and incite discrimination," Nut Savana said.  

Nuon Toeun often used social media to criticize Cambodia’s leadership including Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father Hun Sen, who held the post from 1985 until last year before passing the role to his son and taking a new role as president of the senate. 

She also criticized how the Cambodian government handled social issues.

A few days before her arrest, Nuon Toeun had posted a video to her Facebook page, in response to a comment telling her to “be mindful of being the subject of sin,” in reference to her talking negatively about Hun Sen.

“If I have sinned because I [have cursed] this despicable guy, I am happy to accept the sin because he has mistreated my people so badly,” she said in the video. “I am not a politician, but I am a political observer and expressing rage on behalf of the people living inside Cambodia.” 

Nuon Toeun had been a supporter of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which had been the main opposition party in the country prior to its supreme court declaring the party illegal and dissolving it in 2017.

Ahmad Jamal condemned the Malaysian authorities for deporting Nuon Toeun, saying, “It is a human rights abuse that should not be allowed in democracies. Joining hands with a dictatorship is against international law.”

Nuon Toeun was working legally in Malaysia and did not deserve to be arrested or deported, Sadat Samathi, the president of the Global Cambodian Youth Network in Malaysia, told RFA.

“The arrest by the Cambodian Embassy in cooperation with Malaysian police was an act of immorality and a violation of law,” said Sadat Samathi. Now the Cambodian refugees in Malaysia are in fear and seeking safe places to stay to avoid  such immoral arrests and deportations.”

Translated by So Kry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.