A U.S. citizen was found guilty of conspiring to overthrow the Cambodian government and kill the country’s prime minister in an extensive plot that involved planning meetings and fundraisers in Long Beach, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Yasith Chhun, 51, was found guilty yesterday by a jury of traveling to the Cambodia-Thailand border in 1998 to meet with opponents to Prime Minister Hun Sen and drafting a plot to acquire weapons and overthrow the government. Chhun, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Cambodian descent, was put in charge of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, and held fundraisers at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
According to the release, Chhun orchestrated an attack on government buildings in Phnom Penh in 2000. He will be sentenced by a federal judge on September 8, and faces a possible life in prison.
- Amy Taxin
US support dictatorship around the world. Cambodian is a good sample.