High-ranking officials of the Norodom Ranariddh Party submitted affidavits and testimony Tuesday to Phnom Penh Municipal Court in hopes of proving the October 2006 ouster of Prince Ranariddh from Funcinpec was illegal.
NRP officers You Hokry and Chhim Siek Leng were called to testify as witnesses in the case against Funcinpec Secretary-General Nhek Bun Chhay.
The suit claims Nhek Bun Chhay falsified public documents and illegally held a party congress in Prince Ranariddh's absence to have him unseated as the president of the party, which remains the coalition partner of the ruling Cambodian People's Party.
"The evidence that I submitted some time ago will confirm that Nhek Bun Chhay intended to hold the congress and that the national council's meeting was in violation of the [party] chapter and internal rules," You Hokry told VOA Khmer. "Because he understood that he had no rights in convening a national council meeting and the congress—which is the president's sole right—he then altered the content of some letters and created documents that did not go through Prince Ranariddh as president."
Funcinpec spokesman Nov Sovatharo said the congress was legal and according to the party's bylaws.
Prince Ranariddh, who is out of the country, was found guilty in absentia earlier this year on charges related to embezzlement for the sale of Funcinpec's headquarters. He runs his eponymous party, which he started after his ouster from Funcinpec, from abroad.