Immigration: Cambodian opposition politician allowed to enter Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: Mu Sochua (pic), the vice-president of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), who was detained by the Immigration Department, is now permitted to enter Malaysia.

Immigration Department director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud confirmed this although he declined to share more details such as why she was detained by the authorities.

“She has been permitted to enter,” said Khairul Dzaimee in a text message on Thursday (Nov 7).

Earlier, it was reported that four sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters that the Immigration Department had detained Mu Sochua.

The detention came ahead of a planned return of CNRP leaders including Mu Sochua and Sam Rainsy, the party’s founder, to Cambodia.

The sources, one of whom is with the Malaysian government, declined to be named.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said that the government has yet to decide on the request from its Cambodian counterpart to deport several of its citizens, including Mu Sochua.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament on Thursday, Saifuddin said Malaysia had received a request from Cambodia to deport them.

"But we make our own decisions. I think the (Immigration) authorities want to interview her and probably want to know her intentions for coming.

"But as far as Wisma Putra is concerned, we are in no position to deport people and neither do we like doing it.

"We make our own decisions, not because of any request or any kind of interference from foreign countries," he said.