Malaysia arrests chief of Cambodian opposition party

MALAYSIA has detained a senior Cambodian official ahead of her planned return home with self-exiled opposition leaders to lead anti-government demonstrations.

Mu Sochua, 65, the vice-president of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, was held at the airport in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, after Cambodia sought her arrest on the grounds that she and other party members were plotting a coup against Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minster.

Ms Sochua had planned to fly home to Phnom Penh on Saturday with Sam Rainsy, the party’s founder, and other senior politicians and supporters.

She said that their aim was to peacefully restore democracy to the southeast Asian nation, after elections held last year were widely denounced as a sham.

Ms Sochua was later released, but Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister, said his government was planning to deport her to a third, as yet unknown, country.