An Australian filmmaker who received a royal pardon from Cambodia will be deported Saturday, immigration officials said, a day after he was released from a six-year sentence in a case Human Rights Watch has called "a ludicrous charade". James Ricketson, 69, was given jail time three weeks ago for "espionage and collecting harmful information that could affect national defence" by a Phnom Penh court.
He was then issued a royal pardon on Friday, after strongman premier Hun Sen requested it from the Cambodian king. "We will deport him today," Keo Vanthan, spokesman for the immigration department, told AFP. "We are looking for a flight for him." Ricketson's lawyer Kong Sam Onn confirmed this, adding that the Australian's visa to stay in Cambodia had expired.
The embattled filmmaker had been in prison since last June, after footage emerged of him using a drone to film a rally of the now-defunct opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
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