Rebels take key military camp in Mali's north

(The Center Square) - U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter's decision to run for U.S. Senate has attracted 14 candidates for his 1st Congressional District post. 

Carter, a Republican, has served in Congress since 2015. 

Six Republicans qualified: Pat Farrell, Jim Kingston, Brian Allen Montgomery, Krista Penn, Kandiss Taylor and Eugene Chin Yu. 

Taylor, an educator who ran for governor in 2022, said the Trump administration has not gone far enough to dismantle the Department of Education.

“We have a lot of federal regulations in education, and they’re really unconstitutional,” Taylor said in an interview with The Center Square. “It’s supposed to be a state right.”

Taylor slammed expanding Medicare and Medicaid. She called for greater competition among insurance companies to lower prices.

“When you have monopolies on systems, then of course you can jack your price up and screw the people and that's what we see happening,” Taylor said.

Penn told The Center Square she wants to advocate for veterans' issues. She said the Department of Veterans Affairs has not done enough to standardize its processes and provide the highest quality of care for veterans.

“If things were standardized, then they would be able to walk right in and know exactly what the processes are and not have to learn things all over again,” Penn said. “We need fewer career politicians and we need more leaders who understand the true meaning of service."

Kingston, son of former U.S. Congressman Jack Kingston, is endorsed by President Donald Trump. Kingston, Farrell, Montgomery and Yu did not respond to a request for an interview. 

Eight Democrats qualified: Defonsio Daniels, Joyce Marie Griggs, Amanda Hollowell, Michael McCord, Joey Palimeno, Sharon Stokes Williamson, Patrick Wilver and Randall Jay Zurcher.

Hollowell said Carter has not been responsive to the community’s needs for several years.

“He was selective about who he was responding to via email,” Hollowell said in an email with The Center Square. “Then, he became a super MAGA Trumper, so we really knew that he wasn’t listening to you.”

Hollowell called for expanded testing and rubric opportunities, increased caps on student loan borrowing and pay raises for teachers.

“If we are not providing people with that foundation and that skill set, we're going to be stagnant,” Hollowell said. “I do believe we fully need to reinstate the Department of Education.”

Daniels, Griggs, McCord, Palimeno, Williamson, Wilver and Zurcher did not respond to a request for an interview. 

Early voting continues through May 15. A runoff, if needed, will be held on June 16. 

A centuries-old Buddha statue stolen from a Nepali temple was reinstalled in its original location on Friday, one of several artefacts returned from foreign museums and collectors in recent years.

The statue, dating to the 13th century, was carried in a palanquin back to its pagoda-style temple in the capital Kathmandu to the sound of traditional music.

"I feel so happy, we all do. Our god is coming back," temple-goer Sunkesari Shakya, 67, told AFP, recalling the day the statue was stolen, wreaking "havoc" in the community.

In a ceremony attended by a visiting US envoy, the statue returned from New York in 2022 was placed back on its original stone plinth.

The event coincided with the festival of Buddha Jayanti, marking the birth of the founder of Buddhism.

A replica that locals had been worshipping instead was moved to another area of the temple.

The statue was taken from the temple in the 1980s and later emerged at Tibet House US, a New York cultural centre, where it was gifted by an unknown monk, according to Nepal's Department of Archeology.

Sergio Gor, Washington's special envoy to South and Central Asia, told AFP that "one of the things we are focusing on is to be able to bring back some of these incredible artefacts that decades past got into the wrong hands."

"We are trying to right a wrong from the past," said Gor, who was on a three-day visit to Nepal.

Many in the Himalayan nation of 30 million people are deeply religious, and the country's Hindu and Buddhist temples as well as heritage sites are an integral part of everyday life.

But many sites are bereft of centuries-old sculptures, paintings, ornamental windows and even doors, which were often stolen after the country opened up to the outside world in the 1950s.

Many pieces were taken with the help of corrupt officials to feed art markets in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, although their export remains illegal.

About 200 artefacts have been returned back to Nepal, according to the archeology department, including wood and stone carvings, paintings, scriptures and idols of gods and goddesses.

At least 41 artefacts have been placed back in their original location.

"This is very important. Our statues are not just objects of art but part of a living heritage," conservation expert Rabindra Puri told AFP.

Puri said there was growing momentum to return stolen artefacts. Over 400 are officially listed as missing, but experts estimate the actual number is in thousands.

Authorities are specifically seeking to return more artefacts from the United States, France, Germany and Britain.

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A key US Federal Reserve official warned Friday that a series of interest rate hikes could be needed if price shocks from the Middle East war are larger than expected, fuelling inflation.

"Federal funds rate increases, potentially a series of them, could be warranted, even at the risk of further weakness to the labor market," Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said, explaining his dissent to the central bank's overall decision this week.

Kashkari was among four officials who voted against the Fed's statement Wednesday after a two-day policy meeting. There are 12 voting members on the bank rate-setting committee.

Like him, two other regional Fed presidents, Beth Hammack and Lorie Logan, supported the decision to hold rates steady but not the bank's signal that a rate cut was their next likeliest move.

Hammack, too, pointed to the risk of steeper inflation in defending her decision.

Fed governor Stephen Miran, however, continued pushing for lower interest rates.

This was the most number of dissents since October 1992, highlighting the challenges that Fed Chair Jerome Powell's expected successor, Kevin Warsh, will face if he is confirmed by lawmakers.

The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee "should offer a policy outlook that signals that the next rate change could be either a cut or a hike, depending on how the economy evolves," Kashkari said on Friday.

He flagged risks from an extended closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to conflict in the Middle East, and the potential for more damage to energy and commodity infrastructure in the region.

Tehran has virtually blocked the waterway, a key route for energy and fertilizer shipments, after US-Israeli strikes since February 28.

This has caused a surge in oil prices, feeding into worries that inflation could be more persistent.

In a separate statement, Hammack of the Cleveland Fed said: "I dissented from the post-meeting statement because I did not believe it was appropriate to include an easing bias around the future path for monetary policy."

"Inflation pressures continue to be broad based, and rising oil prices present an additional source of inflationary pressure," she said.

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his wish for more interest rate cuts, slamming Powell repeatedly for not slashing them more aggressively.

As Trump steps up pressure on the independent institution, Powell announced Wednesday that he would stay on as Fed governor even after his term as chairman expires on May 15.

Powell can remain on the Fed's board of governors until 2028, and his decision sparked a wave of fresh criticism from the Trump administration.

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The war in the Middle East has forced the Gulf monarchies to rethink their oil and trade routes, but rerouting them will be no simple task, experts say.

Faced with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the only maritime entry point to the Gulf, the region's Arab nations are looking for ways to bypass Tehran's stranglehold on their exports.

Badr Jafar, the UAE's special envoy for business and philanthropy, wrote in the Financial Times in early April that the Gulf states would never "return to a posture of strategic dependence on a narrow strait controlled by an unpredictable neighbour".

He insisted that new pipeline and port capacity would be built and "the power grids, water systems and trade corridors connecting the region's economies ... formalised". Economics, politics and regional diplomatic rivalries are likely to get in the way, however , experts told AFP.

- New pipelines difficult -

While Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain have no coastline outside the Gulf and no alternative to the strait for seabound oil and gas, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates both have pipelines allowing them to ship at least some of their output from ports beyond Hormuz -- and plan more.

Nevertheless, these pipelines only cover a fraction of the two nations' pre-war exports and would need to be expanded if either country wanted to completely end their reliance on the Strait of Hormuz.

Robert Mogielnicki, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Paris, said that building new pipelines "will take time" and such infrastructure would "still possess vulnerabilities".

"Diversifying energy export supply routes is nevertheless going to be crucial in the years ahead," he added.

For liquefied natural gas, of which Qatar is by far the dominant producer in the region, the dependency on Hormuz is even greater.

Yet, as Frederic Schneider, a senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, explained, building alternative natural gas infrastructure would likely prove economically unattractive.

"The idea of a trans-Arabian gas pipeline has occasionally been floated but never progressed," he said. 

"The distances, political complexity, and cost make it unattractive against LNG tankers in normal conditions, and normal conditions are what pipeline economics are built on."

- Overland no alternative -

The Gulf's major container ports are mostly located on its southern shores, including Dubai's Jebel Ali, the region's main logistical hub.

With the Strait of Hormuz off limits, ships have been diverted to Oman and Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast with containers then shipped onwards overland.

But overland capacity is limited while costs are "significantly higher" said Schneider.

One possibility for boosting land-based transport capacity would be the Gulf Cooperation Council's planned rail network. Yet the project, which is supposed to link all six member states by 2030, has been plagued by delays. 

Another possibility could be the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor project, launched in 2023, which partially aimed to bypass both the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal, using rail links across the Middle East to connect European and Indian shipping routes.

Yet the idea remains "tenuous, if not hypothetical" said Schneider, not least because the project would involve linking Saudi Arabia with Israel at a time when Riyadh has cooled on establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

- 'Zero-sum' rivalry -

While Gulf governments talk about integration, analysts warned that their own self-interest may get in the way.

"Tensions around the strait will generate some tailwinds supporting regional integration projects, but these will also have to contend with some serious economic headwinds and governments that will be super focused on their domestic fronts," said Mogielnicki.

The budgetary pressures created by the war, which have not only halted oil and gas exports but also hit tourism, aluminium and fertiliser production, may also make coordination less likely.

"This fiscal crisis only intensifies the intense, beggar-thy-neighbour, zero-sum economic rivalry that has marked GCC national economic policies for years," said Schneider.

Previous conflicts in the Gulf, he pointed out, did not lead to more regional integration, even if there were bilateral deals, he said.

While the shock of closing Hormuz is much greater, he said, "I would be cautious about treating a geopolitical shock as a substitute for the political will and institutional capacity that have been missing so far".

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Iran delivered a new proposal for peace talks with the US via mediator Pakistan, state media reported Friday, with negotiations between the two sides frozen despite a weeks-long ceasefire.

The text of the proposal was handed to Islamabad on Thursday evening, the IRNA news agency reported.

The war, launched by the United States and Israel with a vast wave of surprise strikes on February 28 has been on hold since April 8, but only one failed round of direct talks has taken place between Iranian and US representatives.

In the meantime, Iran has maintained its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off vast amounts of oil, gas and fertiliser from the world economy, while the United States has imposed a counterblockade on Iranian ports.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that US President Donald Trump had told security officials to prepare for the blockade to last months, causing oil prices to spike.

Despite the failure to negotiate an end to the war, the ceasefire has held. On Friday, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, a senior figure and well-respected cleric, said "the Islamic Republic has never shied away from negotiations".

But in yet another sign that finding a compromise may prove difficult, Ejei said "we certainly do not accept imposition", in a video shared by the judiciary's Mizan Online website.

Tehran, though, does not want a return to war he said.

"We do not welcome war in any way; we do not want war, we do not want its continuation."

The lack of fighting has not assuaged markets, with oil prices still more than 50 percent above their prewar levels as traders confront a prolonged closure of Hormuz, while the European Central Bank held interest rates amid fears of soaring inflation.

- War powers debate -

Washington, meanwhile, was gripped by a legalistic debate over whether Trump had passed a deadline for requesting congressional approval for his war with Iran.

Administration officials, including defence secretary Pete Hegseth, insisted that the ceasefire meant that the clock was paused on a 60-day deadline requiring the president to seek war powers authorisation from Congress.

"For War Powers Resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28 have terminated," a senior administration official told AFP late on Thursday.

Trump is under increasing domestic pressure over the war, with no clear victory in sight, inflation spiking due to the conflict and midterm elections due in November.

On Thursday, US government data showed slower than expected growth and inflation hit 3.5 percent.

In Iran, meanwhile, the economic consequences of the war, which come on top of years of fierce international sanctions, were beginning to bite.

On Thursday, the US military said its blockade had stopped Iran from exporting $6 billion worth of oil, while inflation, already above 45 percent before the war, reached 53.7 percent in recent weeks, according to the national statistics centre. 

"For many people, paying rent and even buying food has become difficult, and some have nothing left at all," 28-year-old Mahyar told an AFP reporter based outside Iran, saying the company he worked for had laid off 34 people -- nearly 40 percent of its staff. 

- Hormuz missions -

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Washington's international allies for failing to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

France and Britain have led efforts to bring together an international coalition of dozens of countries that would help reopen the strait, but only once peace is secured.

But on Thursday, a US official confirmed to AFP that Washington was launching its own international coalition to restart shipping, dubbed "the Maritime Freedom Construct".

That prompted French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot to insist that the two missions would complement and not compete with each other.

The US mission is "not of the same nature as the one we established... it comes as a sort of complement", Barrot said on a visit to the Gulf. 

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Mali's army and its Russian mercenary allies surrendered a strategic northern military stronghold to armed rebels on Friday, as Tuareg separatists and jihadists waged a unified front to bring down the country's junta.

Forces at Mali's Tessalit military base, a "super-camp" near the Algerian border, surrendered and were scattering southward, an official from the Tuareg-dominated FLA separatist group told AFP.

The FLA's allies, jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), are calling for cooperation to bring down the junta that has run Mali since 2020.

Friday's assault follows large-scale, fatal attacks at the weekend by the separatist and jihadist rebels on key junta strongholds across Mali.

And it comes just one day after JNIM began a road blockade on the capital, Bamako. Only people already in the city were allowed to leave.

A security source in Gao, south of Tessalit, told AFP that "no clashes took place" during the rebel forces' capture of Tessalit, and that regular troops had already evacuated when the assailants entered.

A local elected official confirmed to AFP that the Russians had also abandoned their position there.

Tessalit serves as a strategic base due to its geographical location and features a well-maintained airstrip capable of accommodating helicopters and other large military aircraft. 

It had hosted a significant number of Malian troops and their Russian allies, in addition to a substantial quantity of military equipment.

"Tessalit is the oldest base built by the colonial power (France)", a military officer told AFP, adding that its position in the far north offered "a panoramic view of the entire Sahara".

- Push to take north -

The coordinated weekend attacks marked the largest assault in the west African country in nearly 15 years.

The fierce fighting at various locations, including around Bamako, resulted in the death of at least 23 people and killed defence minister Sadio Camara, a key junta figure.

A government tribute was held for the 47-year-old minister on Thursday, who died as a result of a car bomb at his residence in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako.

During the series of attacks, the militants took the northern city of Kidal.

The Tuareg rebels later predicted they would conquer the country's north and the junta would "fall". 

In recent years, Mali, like neighbouring junta-led Burkina Faso and Niger, has cut ties with colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.

Russia has sent in mercenaries to help fight a long-running jihadist insurgency.

The three west African neighbours banded together to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which created a joint force it says numbers some 15,000 men.

The government of Niger said late on Thursday that the three countries had "conducted intense air campaigns" following the attacks in Mali on Saturday.

While that assault marked a turning point in JNIM's fight against the Malian junta, it was far from the jihadists' only campaign in recent times.

Late last year, JNIM attempted to cripple the Malian economy by imposing blockades on the supply of petrol and diesel being trucked in from abroad, particularly from Ivory Coast and Senegal.

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Turkish police on Friday fired tear gas and arrested hundreds of people holding May Day demonstrations in Istanbul, as thousands rallied nationwide.

According to the CHD Lawyers' Association, at least 370 people were arrested in Istanbul, where police fired tear gas from riot-control vehicles into the crowd, AFP journalists observed.

Images aired on the opposition channel HALK TV also showed the president of the Turkish Workers’ Party, Erkan Bas, engulfed in pepper spray. 

"Those in power already speak 365 days a year, so let workers talk about the hardships they face at least one day a year," he said.

Two groups were specially singled out in the city's European side after signalling their intention to march to Taksim square -- the scene of several anti-government protests in the past -- which was sealed off overnight by police.

A union official, Basaran Aksu, was arrested just after he had denounced the Taksim lockdown. 

"You can't close off a square to the workers of Turkey. Everyone uses Taksim, for official ceremonies, for celebrations. Only the labourers, the workers, the poor find the square closed to them," he fumed.

- Police lines -

May Day, which celebrates workers and the working classes, sees a major police deployment in Turkey every year, with a large area in the heart of Istanbul around Taksim Square sealed off.

Last year, protests moved to the Kadikoy area of the city and more than 400 people were arrested.

The number of arrests this year appeared to be approaching that level.

The CHD lawyers' group, which was present at the rallies, said on a post on X that, at 1100 GMT "according to our information, the number of people in custody stands at 370".

On Friday, a large deployment of police, many in riot gear, and metal barricades were seen choking access to central neighbourhoods of Istanbul.

In the Mecidiyekoy district, police were seen by AFP using tear gas on the crowd, which included members of a Marxist party, the HKP, who tried to push through while chanting "USA murderer, AKP (Turkey's ruling party) accomplice".

Police encircling the Besiktas neighbourhood stepped in -- sometimes violently -- whenever a chant was taken up by the demonstrators. AFP saw several protesters thrown to the ground.

Unions and civil society associations had called for the May 1 demonstrations under the slogan "Bread. Peace. Freedom".

Inflation in Turkey is officially pegged at 30 percent but is closer to 40, according to independent estimates.

In Ankara, about 100 coal miners who had staged a nine-day hunger strike to demand wage arrears were cheered as they joined the May Day march, which was notably large and youthful and monitored by a significant police presence, an AFP journalist said.

Earlier this week, Turkish authorities issued arrest and search warrants against 62 people, of whom they deemed 46 -- including journalists, trade unionists and opposition figures -- were "likely to carry out attacks". 

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A dozen members of the French navy scour screens for blinking lights indicating movement thousands of kilometres away near the Strait of Hormuz.

Since the start of the Iran war in late February, staff at a maritime security centre in western France have been helping merchant ships trapped in the Gulf.

Twin Iranian and US blockades of the Strait of Hormuz have left more than 750 civilian ships stranded on the Gulf side of the passageway, through which a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas transited before the conflict. Only a handful have managed to leave in recent weeks.

If the Maritime Information Cooperation and Awareness Center (MICA center) detects any form of bombardment, it immediately sends nearby ships -- container ships, cargo vessels and cruise liners --  an encrypted message. 

"We share the nature of the event, its context and exact position," commanding officer Thomas Scalabre tells AFP in a basement in the French city of Brest.

"They can respond quickly, moving away from the danger if there are shots or debris, or even turn off their transponders so as not to be detected," he adds.

This information is sent within a radius of 50 nautical miles. For comparison, the strait itself is 29 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point.

- Rules 'very unclear' -

The information on the MICA center's monitoring screens is a mixture of satellite images, ship locations emitted by their transponders, and information shared by crews at sea.

It provides help to 85 maritime transport companies, including French group CMA CGM and Danish giant Maersk.

Beyond threats from the Middle East war, the MICA center also tracks the rest of the world's waters -- including Yemeni rebel missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea, piracy off Somalia, and drug smuggling.

MICA has recorded around 40 security incidents, including 24 Iranian direct attacks on commercial vessels since February 28, some of them deadly, Scalabre says.

France and the United Kingdom have pledged to set up a peaceful coalition to re-open the Strait of Hormuz -- but it is not to operate until after the conflict is resolved. Peace talks have stalled in recent weeks.

In the meantime, "the rules Iran imposes on navigation remain very unclear and are constantly shifting," Scalabre says, including with regards to which ships the Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) might decide to single out.

"There isn't necessarily any logic in the IRGC's targeting policy. We've seen many different nationalities and types of vessels" being targeted, he said.

- 'Mosquito fleet' -

IRGC gunboats on April 18 fired at India-flagged tanker Sanmar Herald without prior radio contact, security intelligence firm Vanguard Tech reported, despite India being viewed as a "friend" of Iran, as are China, Russia, Iraq and Pakistan.

Iran also claims to have laid sea mines in the main part of the waterway.

"What matters is the psychological effect. No one will take the risk of venturing there," Scalabre says. 

Tehran can authorise some ships to leave the Gulf or enter it via the Strait of Hormuz.

But "even when they obtain it, the IRGC's 'mosquito fleet' can emerge to block their way," Scalabre says.

In his office, the commanding officer enlarges an image showing a swarm of speedboats carrying out such an attack.

A dozen Iranian patrol boats burst forth, carving white foamy wakes behind them as they encircle and seize a vessel before it can leave.

"They sometimes carry out indiscriminate attacks, whether the country is considered friendly or not," the French navy officer says.

"For Tehran, controlling the Strait of Hormuz remains one of its trump cards to exert pressure and negotiate" a way out of the conflict, he adds.

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The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Iran open to US talks: judiciary chief -

Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei on Friday said Tehran was open to talks with the United States but would not accept what he called policy "imposition" under threats.

"The Islamic Republic has never shied away from negotiations... but we certainly do not accept imposition," Ejei said in a video carried by the judiciary's Mizan Online website. 

- Air defences activated in Tehran -

Air defences were heard in the Iranian capital Tehran on Thursday night after they were activated to counter small aircraft and drones, Iran's Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported.

Air defences were active for about 20 minutes and the city returned to a "normal situation", according to the news agencies.

- US urges meeting of Israel, Lebanon leaders -

The US embassy in Lebanon called for a meeting between Lebanese and Israeli leaders as the health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country's south killed at least 15 people despite an ongoing ceasefire.

"Lebanon stands at a crossroads. Its people have a historic opportunity to reclaim their country and shape their future as a truly sovereign, independent nation," the embassy said, adding that "the time for hesitation is over".

Trump has said he hopes to host Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "over the next couple of weeks" as the two Middle East countries prepare for direct negotiations.

- Trump mulls US troop cuts in Italy, Spain -

President Donald Trump said Thursday he may pull US troops from Italy and Spain due to their opposition to the Iran war, a day after proposing a similar reduction in Germany.

"Yeah, probably, I probably will. Why shouldn't I?" Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he would consider reducing American troop numbers in Spain and Italy too.

"Italy has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible," Trump added.

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The UN rights chief said Friday he was "deeply concerned" by a Cambodian court rejecting the appeal of detained opposition leader Kem Sokha against his nearly three-decade sentence for treason.

The 72-year-old politician was convicted for trying to topple the government of long-ruling former prime minister Hun Sen, who is the father of the current leader and remains an influential figure in national politics.

Kem Sokha was sentenced in 2023 to 27 years in prison for treason but was ordered to serve the time under house arrest in the capital Phnom Penh.

Volker Turk, the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, said he we "deeply concerned by the upholding of the conviction" by the Phnom Penh appeals court on Thursday.

The co-founder of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, Kem Sokha has repeatedly denied the charge since his 2017 arrest in connection with a speech he gave in Australia four years earlier.

Rights groups have long accused Cambodian authorities of using legal cases as a tactic to silence opposition voices and legitimate political dissent.

- 'Chilling effects' -

Turk also voiced concerns about the convictions of 33 other opposition activists, human rights defenders and social media users, in a separate case on Wednesday.

The Phnom Penh first instance court imposed sentences ranging from 18 months suspended to two years in prison, Turk's OHCHR office said, on charges of "incitement to cause social chaos" over public comments they made in 2024 about the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area project.

"These convictions and sentences are clearly inconsistent with international human rights law and risk further deepening the already-considerable chilling effects of broad, vaguely-worded criminal laws and their arbitrary enforcement on civil society, journalists and the broader population in Cambodia," OHCHR spokesman Jeremy Laurence said.

"Kem Sokha and the other 33 individuals were all exercising their rights to freedom of expression. Their trials also raise concerns about violations of due process and fair trial rights," he told a press conference in Geneva.

Turk urged Cambodia to ensure that legitimate criticism and expression are protected rather than criminalised, to safeguard civic space, to guarantee the independence of the judiciary and uphold fair trial guarantees.

"The authorities should promptly quash these latest convictions and sentences, and unconditionally release Kem Sokha and all others arbitrarily detained for exercising their rights," said Laurence.

Laurence said OHCHR had consistently raised concerns with the Cambodian authorities "on general repression, and particularly on freedom of speech, expression, association and assembly".

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