PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court jailed an Australian filmmaker for six years on Friday after finding him guilty of espionage for flying a drone over an opposition party rally.

James Ricketson, 69, was arrested last June after he was photographed flying the drone above the rally organized by the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) before communal elections.

Ricketson was charged with espionage, although it remains unclear for whom he was spying. His family called the court sentence an “absolute tragedy”.

“The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has decided to convict James Ricketson and sentences him to six years in prison for espionage and collecting information that is harmful to the nation between December 2010 and June 2017,” Judge Seng Leang said.

Ricketson, who has spent more than a year behind bars after his bail was denied, appeared in court wearing a pink prison uniform and holding a copy of the thriller book ‘The Faithful Spy’ by Alex Berenson.

Speaking in court after the verdict, Ricketson expressed disbelief. “Which country was I conducting espionage for?” he asked.

“James is almost 70 and is not in good health, our family is very scared about what will happen to him in there if things take a turn for the worst,” Ricketson’s family said in a statement following the verdict, referring to Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison where Ricketson has been jailed.

“James is not a spy. James loves Cambodia and the Cambodian people. He is a filmmaker and a humanitarian,” the family said.

During hearings that began last week the prosecution argued that Ricketson’s work had damaged Cambodia’s reputation on the world stage.

Ricketson has been visiting Cambodia for more than 20 years, producing documentaries about the country and its people.

Australian filmmaker James Ricketson shouts inside a prison truck as he leaves the Municipal Court of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, August 31, 2018. REUTERS/Samrang Pring

Ricketson’s son, Jesse Ricketson, said the court’s decision was an “absolute tragedy”.

“It’s very difficult to imagine what the future holds now for my dad. I’m absolutely terrified for him,” he added.

“We are really looking for a lot more support moving forward from the new Australian government,” Ricketson’s nephew, Bim Ricketson, told reporters in Sydney.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that Ricketson can expect further consular assistance and that the government had previously approached Cambodia directly about the case.

“As usual with these types of events, it’s best I think to deal with these things calmly, directly and in a way that best assists the citizen,” he told reporters in Jakarta.

‘EXCESSIVE CHARGES’

In a letter to Cambodia’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen last month, Ricketson apologized for statements to media that were disrespectful to Hun Sen.

Ricketson’s arrest came amid a wider crackdown on freedom of expression by Hun Sen’s government and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

The CPP last month claimed victory following a controversial general election which was largely unopposed.

Rights groups said the July 29 vote was neither free nor fair given the absence of a significant challenger to Hun Sen, who has ruled for 33 years.

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Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the trial exposed flaws in Cambodia’s judicial system.

“This trial exposed everything that’s wrong with the Cambodian judicial system: ridiculously excessive charges, prosecutors with little or no evidence, and judges carrying out political orders from the government rather than ruling based on what happens in court,” Robertson said in a statement.</s>PHNOM PENH (REUTERS) - A Cambodian court sentenced an Australian filmmaker to six years in prison on Friday (Aug 31) after finding him guilty of espionage for flying a drone over an opposition party's political rally.

James Ricketson, 69, was arrested last June after he was photographed flying the drone above the rally organised by the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and staged ahead of a communal election.

Ricketson was charged with espionage, although it remains unclear for whom he was spying. His family called the court sentence an "absolute tragedy".

"The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has decided to convict James Ricketson and sentences him to six years in prison for espionage and collecting information that is harmful to the nation between December 2010 and June 2017," Judge Seng Leang said.

Ricketson, who has spent more than a year behind bars after his bail was denied, appeared in court wearing a pink prison uniform and holding a copy of the spy-triller book The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson.

Speaking in court after the verdict, Ricketson expressed disbelief. "Which country was I conducting espionage for?" he asked.

"James is almost 70 and is not in good health, our family is very scared about what will happen to him in there if things take a turn for the worst," Ricketson's family said in a statement following the verdict, referring to Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison where Ricketson has been jailed.

"James is not a spy. James loves Cambodia and the Cambodian people. He is a filmmaker and a humanitarian," the family said.

During hearings that began last week, the prosecution argued that Ricketson's work had damaged Cambodia's reputation on the world stage.

Ricketson has been visiting Cambodia for more than 20 years, producing documentaries about the country and its people.

Ricketson's son, Jesse Ricketson, said: "It's very difficult to imagine what the future holds now for my dad. I'm absolutely terrified for him."

In a letter to Cambodia's long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen last month, Ricketson apologised for statements to local media that were disrespectful to Hun Sen.

Ricketson's arrest came amid a wider crackdown on freedom of expression by Hun Sen's government and his Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

The CPP last month claimed victory following a controversial general election which was largely unopposed.

Rights groups said the July 29 vote was neither free nor fair, given the absence of a significant challenger to Hun Sen, who has ruled for 33 years.</s>An Australian filmmaker was sentenced Friday to six years in prison by a Cambodian court on espionage charges related to flying a drone at an opposition party rally last year.

James Ricketson, 69, faced up to 10 years in prison for “collecting information that could be damaging to national defense” per the country’s criminal code. He has been detained since his arrest in June 2017.

“My love for Cambodia and its people is heartfelt,” Ricketson said in a statement released by his family after the verdict was announced Friday, his 456th day in Phnom Penh’s overcrowded Prey Say prison. “I am a film maker and a journalist, I have not committed the crime for which I have been sentenced.”

“They whisked him out of the room pretty quick, I didn’t get a chance to talk to him or give him a hug,” Jesse Ricketson tells TIME. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

Prosecutors said Ricketson, a frequent visitor of Cambodia over the past 23 years, used documentary filmmaking as a cover for espionage, though they never specified which country he was believed to be spying for.

“All his filming activities cause the international community to hate Cambodia, this is his intention,” prosecutor Sieng Sok said in a closing statement quoted by ABC.

Ricketson was also a critic of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Much of the weeklong trial focused on his allegedly subversive political activity, specifically emails sent to exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

The CNRP was disbanded last year amid a crackdown ahead of elections this past July, in which Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party won all 125 seats.

Read more: Cambodia’s ‘Illegitimate’ Election Has Been Rejected by Main Opposition Party

“From day one, James Ricketson has been a scapegoat in Hun Sen’s false narrative of a so-called ‘color revolution’ used as an excuse to crack down on the political opposition and civil society critics,” Robertson said. “Cambodia should stop tormenting Ricketson and his family, release him immediately and unconditionally, and quash this conviction.”

While on a visit to Indonesia, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters Friday that Ricketson “can expect to get all the consular and other support from the Australian government you would expect in these circumstances.”

In a statement to TIME, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said Ricketson’s options were limited to “the avenues open to him under Cambodian law.”

Those include filing an appeal or petitioning Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni for a pardon.

“At the moment we’re just processing the news,” Jesse Ricketson tells TIME. “We’re going to keep doing everything we can to keep bringing this situation to an end as quick as we can.”</s>An Australian filmmaker has been sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of espionage in Cambodia.

After a six-day trial, Judge Seng Leang on Friday found James Ricketson guilty on two charges of espionage.

"We have decided to convict [him] to six years in prison for espionage and collecting harmful information that could affect national defence," he said.

The prosecution had accused Ricketson of working as a filmmaker in Cambodia for years as a front for spying.

"Unbelievable. Which country am I spying for?" Ricketson asked out loud in court.

Ricketson has been held in jail since his arrest in June last year after he flew a drone over a rally held by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was disbanded months later.

The CNRP's dissolution paved the way for Prime Minister Hun Sen to win a clean sweep of all parliamentary seats in July's national election.

Ricketson's lawyer Kong Sam Onn told reporters outside the court that he plans to request a royal pardon from the Cambodian king.

Earlier this week, 14 opposition legislators and activists jailed before the election were released after sending apology letters to Hun Sen, which the premier said he sent on to the monarch.

The family of the 69-year-old filmmaker hopes he will be released soon.

"This is absolutely devastating for James and for us, and for his family, and his friends, and everyone. It's been such a long hard process and to get this result is just devastating. I don't know ... we need some time to get our thoughts together and work out what to do next. Obviously we won't be giving up," said his son Jesse.

The trial "exposed everything that's wrong with the Cambodian judicial system", according to Human Rights Watch's Phil Robertson who decried the court's findings.

Robertson said the Australian was used as a "scapegoat" by the government to crack down on political opposition.

He also criticised what he said was inaction by the Australian government in "failing to publicly and consistently challenge this ludicrous charade and demand Ricketson's immediate and unconditional release".

Ricketson has faced legal problems in the past. He was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence in 2014 for allegedly threatening to broadcast allegations that a church working in Cambodia had sold children.

Two years later, he was fined after a court found him guilty of defaming an anti-paedophile NGO by accusing the group of manipulating witnesses.</s>PHNOM PENH: An Australian filmmaker was sentenced to six years in prison on Friday after being convicted of espionage in Cambodia in a case that Human Rights Watch slammed as a "ludicrous charade".

James Ricketson has been held in jail since his arrest in June last year after he flew a drone over a rally held by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which was effectively banned months later.

The CNRP's dissolution paved the way for strongman premier Hun Sen to win a clean sweep of all parliamentary seats in July's national election, which Western democracies have said was flawed in the absence of any viable opposition.

After a six-day trial, Judge Seng Leang found the 69-year-old Ricketson guilty on two charges of espionage.

"We have decided to convict (him) to six years in prison for espionage and collecting harmful information that could affect national defence," he said, without giving any details of which country he was allegedly spying for.

The prosecution had accused Ricketson of working as a filmmaker in Cambodia for years as a front for spying.

"Unbelievable -- which country am I spying for?" Ricketson asked out loud in court.

His lawyer Kong Sam Onn told reporters waiting outside the court there was "little evidence" to convict his client and that he plans to request a royal pardon from the Cambodian king.

Earlier this week 14 opposition lawmakers and activists jailed before the election were released after sending apology letters to Hun Sen, which the premier said he sent on to the monarch.

'Scapegoat'

 Calling the result "devastating", Ricketson's son Jesse said he could not comment on whether an apology letter to Hun Sen was forthcoming to secure his father's release.

"We'll need some time to get ourselves together and work out what to do next. Obviously, we won't be giving up," the younger Ricketson said. "The human toll of this situation is really hard for everyone... I feel so much for my father right now."

Andrea Giorgetti, Asia director for the International Federation for Human Rights, said that Ricketson's conviction stemmed from "baseless charges".

"The imprisonment of Mr. Ricketson after the slew of recent releases of Hun Sen's political opponents shows that the revolving door of political prisoners keeps spinning in Cambodia," Giorgetti told AFP.

Human Rights Watch's Phil Robertson decried the court's findings on Friday, saying that the trial "exposed everything that's wrong with the Cambodian judicial system".

Robertson said the Australian was used as a "scapegoat" by the government to crack down on political opposition.

He also criticised what he said was inaction by the Australian government in "failing to publicly and consistently challenge this ludicrous charade and demand Ricketson's immediate and unconditional release."

Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said the government "continues to provide Mr Ricketson full consular assistance" but offered no criticism of the verdict.

"Mr. Ricketson is subject to legal proceedings under Cambodian law and must now consider his response to the court's decision using the avenues open to him under Cambodian law," she said.

In the months leading up to the election, the Hun Sen-backed government cracked down on opposition lawmakers, journalists and activists.

Ricketson has faced legal problems in the past. He was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence in 2014 for allegedly threatening to broadcast allegations that a church working in Cambodia had sold children.

Two years later, he was fined after a court found him guilty of defaming an anti-paedophile NGO by accusing the group of manipulating witnesses.</s>Australian documentary filmmaker James Ricketson was Friday sentenced to six years in jail in Cambodia. He was found guilty of espionage.

Ricketson has been held in prison for the past 14 months. During the seven day trial he denied the charges.

Prosecutors said that he was working with the political opposition to the country’s leader Hun Sen, and had worked with a foreign power.

On his way back to jail, after receiving the verdict, Ricketson was heard shouting “Who am I spying for?” That question was never answered in court and Ricketson repeatedly insisted that his work is not political.

“Since he arrived in Cambodia, the accused person has been collecting political, social and economic information about Cambodia and sending it to a foreign state,” prosecutor Sieng Sok said. “He has kept collecting this information for 22 years, until the day he was arrested. The accused person was using his journalism job and helping poor Cambodians just to hide his real work, but in fact he is a spy and has been filming at the sites of the country’s security forces.”

Ricketson was arrested after flying a camera-equipped drone over a rally organized by the Cambodian National Rescue Party. The CNRP was abolished on government orders last year. Prime Minister, Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party in July won all 125 seats in a parliamentary election.

Australian foreign minister, Marise Payne said the Australian government will provide Ricketson with full consular assistance. “Mr Ricketson is subject to legal proceedings under Cambodian law and must now consider his response to the court’s decision using the avenues open to him.”</s>PHNOM PENH: Australian filmmaker James Ricketson was sentenced to six years in prison by a Cambodian court on Friday (Aug 31) after being found guilty of espionage and collecting information prejudicial to national defence.



Ricketson, 69, had been held in pretrial detention for more than a year since his arrest on June 3, 2017 for flying a photographic drone above a political rally organised by the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

His arrest came amid a wider crackdown on media and political freedom in Cambodia before the Jul 29 national election this year, which was comprehensively won by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party.

The filmmaker had been a regular visitor to Cambodia over the past two decades, producing humanitarian films featuring the stories of some of the country’s poorest residents.



Ricketson reacted with incredulity to the verdict of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. "Unbelieveable," he said.



He was accused of spying, but throughout the trial it remained unclear who Ricketson was being accused of spying for.



Following the announcement of the verdict, Ricketson stood up to ask the judges just that, saying, "Which country am I spying for?". 



The trial lasted seven days, with time spent on Ricketson’s real intentions, the sources of money that he used to produce several films and his emails with former CNRP officials, including Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha.

The prosecution accused him of collecting information for a foreign state since 1995, right up until the day of his arrest and raised a raft a evidence, including personal emails, photos from his smartphone and the content of films he had produced in Cambodia.

Notably, his correspondence under question also featured emails to former CNRP officials and in 2016 to the then Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in which Ricketson suggested an invitation for Hun Sen to visit Australia be withdrawn. The email was sent from Ricketson’s Gmail account and he claimed he never received any response, that it was whimsical in nature and ludicrous to suggest it was proof of espionage.



In his final conclusion on Wednesday (Aug 29), deputy prosecutor Seang Sok accused Ricketson of using his reporting and humanitarian work for underprivileged families to camouflage his crime.



“The accused pretended to be an expatriate reporter, aiming to collect information about the security situation in Cambodia,” he said.



He also accused Ricketson of filming and producing videos with the intention of stirring discrimination and hatred against Cambodia. They used language in Ricketson’s emails criticising Hun Sen and his rule as proof of this.



“It seems you are saying something bad about the leader and also about the CPP,” Sok said. "It seems it is not playful at all.”



“His intention was to conceal the significance” of the information he gathered, and he “incited hatred to change the government of Cambodia,” he added.

"He came to Cambodia to help the poor. He filmed children at dump sites. Does it jeopardise national defence? It cannot,” said defence lawyer Kong Sam Onn.



Ricketson also suggested he was being tried as for political reasons and said that it appeared the nature of his journalism was on trial.



“Journalism is not a crime and documentary filmmaking should not be confused with espionage,” he said.



“One possible reason for my prosecution is to silence a critic of the government, sending a message to other journalists, both Khmer and non-Khmer.”

Ricketson's family said in a statement released after the verdict that they were devastated by the outcome. "The toll of this result, for James, and our whole family and friends is immense.”



Ricketson has 30 days to appeal. Kong Sam Onn said he would consult with his client first but would consider asking the king for an official pardon, before launching a court appeal.



"In the current situation, we have more hope. We have seen a lot of tolerance from the government to these kind of prisoners of conscience," he said.</s>PHNOM PENH, Aug 31 (Reuters) - A Cambodian court sentenced an Australian filmmaker to six years in prison after finding him guilty of espionage on Friday.

James Ricketson, 69, was arrested last June after he was photographed flying a drone above a political rally organised by the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

Speaking in court after the verdict, Ricketson expressed disbelief. "Which country was I conducting espionage for?" he asked. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Michael Perry)</s>Judge in Cambodia convicts Australian filmmaker James Rickeston of spying and sentences him to 6 years in prison

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Judge in Cambodia convicts Australian filmmaker James Rickeston of spying and sentences him to 6 years in prison.</s>PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Judge in Cambodia convicts Australian filmmaker James Rickeston of spying and sentences him to 6 years in prison.
A court in Cambodia sentences Australian film director James Ricketson to six years in prison after he was found guilty of espionage for flying a drone at a Cambodia National Rescue Party rally.