Cambodian Coup Leader Yasith Chhun Gets Life Sentence in US

LOS ANGELES (June 22) -- The former leader of a California-based group of Cambodian expatriates who embarked on a failed coup attempt in their home country was sentenced today to life without parole in a U.S. prison.

Yasith Chhun, 53, was convicted two years ago of conspiring to kill in a foreign country and of violating the federal Neutrality Act by engaging in a military foray against a nation with which the U.S. is not at war. He also was convicted of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Chhun was the leader of the Long Beach-based Cambodian Freedom Fighters when it tried to stage a coup in Cambodia in November 2000. The attack in Phnom Penh led to the deaths of three members of the group and the wounding of several Cambodian police personnel and civilians.

About 200 people, mostly renegade military personnel, were involved in the attack, which was planned from Chhun's Long Beach office, federal officials said.

Investigators said Chhun was public about his activities, bragging about them in media interviews and conducting a fundraiser aboard the Queen Mary, now a hotel permanently moored in Long Beach.

Chhun appeared in U.S. District Court today wearing a green windbreaker beneath body chains, and spoke tearfully of the former Khmer Rouge regime that killed his father. He entered the U.S. as a refugee in 1982 but couldn't sever his ties with his native country, he said.

"I had to do something for that country," he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I've been punished because I failed, that I'm not good enough to overthrow that government."

During the trial, witnesses testified that Chhun met with renegade Cambodian military personnel in 1998 near the Thailand border to hatch a plot to overthrow the ruling party in Cambodia, the Cambodia People's Party, and Prime Minister Hun Sen. The Cambodian Freedom Fighters was formed and eventually engaged in a series of small attacks targeting civilians in Cambodia.

That led to the coup plot against the government, which took place Nov. 24, 2000, orchestrated by Chhun. Attacks were launched upon the Ministry of Defense, the Council of Ministers and a military headquarters facility. The attempt quickly failed, but not before several people were killed and more than a dozen wounded.