Opposition candidate freed on bail in Cambodia

A Cambodian newspaper editor and opposition candidate has been freed on bail after an outcry from human rights activists.

Dam Sith, a candidate for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, was charged last week with defaming Foreign Minister Hor Namhong in an article about the Khmer Rouge, the regime blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s.

Amnesty International says Dam Sith's arrest demonstrates how the criminal justice system "is used and abused" to silence critics of the government in the runup to the July 27 general election.

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