Cambodia court to rule on opposition party's dissolution

World Bulletin / News Desk

Cambodian opposition politicians braced for the Supreme Court to dissolve their party on Thursday, as judges weighed a government lawsuit seen as strongman Hun Sen's final bid to eliminate his competition ahead of 2018 polls. 

The case against the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the country's main opposition party, could see over 100 politicians banned from office for five years.

That would be a crushing blow to a movement that has been battered by legal attacks since it nearly unseated Hun Sen in the last national election in 2013.

Scores of riot police were deployed outside the Phnom Penh court early Thursday as the hearing began, though there were no signs of protests.

Government lawyers took several hours to present their case before the panel of nine judges -- whose president Dith Munty is himself a member of Hun Sen's ruling CPP party.

They accused the CNRP of teaming up with the US and other foreign forces to plot a revolution -- allegations Washington and rights groups have dismissed as bogus.