'Death of democracy'

Cambodia's Supreme Court dissolved the country's main opposition party yesterday and banned more than 100 of its politicians, in a ruling blasted by a rights groups as the "death" of the nation's democracy.

The verdict was widely expected from a justice system heavily warped by the influence of long-standing premier Hun Sen, who is accused of ruthlessly targeting rivals in the run-up to 2018 polls.

But it nevertheless delivered a crushing blow to what remained of the embattled Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the only party with a fighting chance to break the authoritarian leader's 32-year grip on power.

Judge Dith Munty, himself a member of Hun Sen's ruling CPP party, said the court had also banned 118 CNRP politicians from office for five years, in what rights groups blasted as a mockery of judicial independence that turned Cambodia into a de facto one party state.

The judge said the CNRP, by boycotting the trial, had effectively confessed to the government-levied accusation of conspiring with the United States and other foreign actors to plot a revolution.

The CNRP and Washington have rejected those charges as bogus.

In a statement the CNRP said it "still considers itself to be a legitimate party with a mandate from half of the Cambodian population", describing the court case as "politically motivated and made under pressure to follow the wish of the ruling party that is trying to rid CNRP from the political field".

In a televised address yesterday evening, Hun Sen called for calm and said 2018 elections would be held as scheduled.

"The government supports the decision of the Supreme Court and its ruling will ensure peace," said the premier, who has staked his reputation on bringing stability and growth to Cambodia after decades of civil war.

Yet rights groups warned the verdict stripped stripped next year's election of any credibility and gravely imperiled the country's democratic aspirations.

"This is the death of democracy in Cambodia," said Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch, calling on foreign partners to suspend any assistance for the 2018 poll.

The International Commission of Jurists said Cambodia had crossed a "red line," with CNRP's dissolution stripping millions of voters of a chance to freely choose their representatives.

The verdict is the culmination of a methodical strangling of dissent in Cambodia that began after the CNRP nearly unseated Hun Sen in the last national election in 2013, rattling the premier.