Cambodia’s opposition leader in Singapore

Cambodia's exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy

JAKARTA: Sam Rainsy, the self-exiled leader of a banned Cambodian opposition party, departed Indonesia for Singapore after a one-day visit, an Indonesian official said.

The co-founder and acting president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) left Jakarta on a Singapore Airlines flight and arrived in the city-state around 10pm local time on Friday, said Sam Fernando, a spokesman at the Directorate General of Immigration of the Law and Human Rights Ministry of Indonesia.

It was not immediately known whether he would be transiting through Singapore or stopping over but he is expected to hold a press conference in the island.

Wanted by Cambodian authorities for allegedly plotting a coup, Sam Rainsy, who is based in Paris, planned to enter Cambodia by land from Thailand last weekend, but Thai authorities prevented him from flying to the country from Paris, where he is based.

The 70-year-old Opposition leader and well-known world figure, flew instead to Malaysia, where he spent a few days rallying support for his cause before flying to Jakarta on Thursday.

During his short stay in the Indonesian capital, he met some parliamentarians as well as commissioners of the government-sanctioned but independent National Commission on Human Rights and representatives of non-governmental organisations dealing with human rights issues.

He reiterated his hope of returning to his native country.

Sam Rainsy has been in self-exile abroad since 2015 and faces more than 10 cases of lawsuits filed against him by members of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party. — Agencies