(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
United Nations United States: The United Nations has told the Cambodian government that a local UN employee charged in connection with a sex scandal involving an opposition lawmaker is immune from prosecution a spokesman said Wednesday.
The UN rights office staffer Sally Soen was charged on Monday with being an accomplice to an attempted bribe of a woman who was asked to deny an affair with the opposition member.
"We have informed the government that the staffer Mr Sally Soen is a UN official and that the issue concerns the performance of his duties as part of the office of the high commissioner for human rights in Cambodia" said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
"The government was informed that accordingly Mr Sally Soen was immune from legal process with respect to this matter" he said.
Dujarric added that the United Nations was in talks with the Cambodian government on reaching an "appropriate resolution" of the case.
Rights groups say the legal proceedings are the latest attempt by Prime Minister Hun Sen to undercut a resurgent opposition trying to end his 31-year grip on power.
Opposition lawmaker Kem Sokha the deputy leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party has been accused of having an affair with a 25-year-old hairdresser.
The woman has accused a prominent advocacy group the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) of instructing her to deny the relationship.
AFP