PHNOM PENH: A guilty verdict against Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy was upheld on Thursday for accusing a senior official of seeking to boost Prime Minister Hun Sen's Facebook popularity by buying fake "likes".
The Appeal Court upheld the Phnom Penh Municipal Court (PPMC)'s verdict against Sam Rainsy made on November 8, 2016, according to Presiding Judge Samrith Sophal.
Sam Sokong, the defence lawyer for Rainsy, said that the ruling was "unacceptable" and would file an appeal to the Supreme Court, Xinhua news agency reported.
The PPMC found Rainsy guilty for alleging that the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP)'s website administrator Som Soeun sought to inflate Hun Sen's Facebook popularity by buying "likes" originating in India and the Philippines.
The court ordered him to pay a fine of $2,500 in addition to $3,750 in compensation to Som Soeun.
Hun Sen publicly denied that he bought "likes" on his Facebook page.
The Prime Minister launched his Facebook page in September 2015 and has over 6.84 million likes, while Rainsy's page has only 3.66 million likes.
Rainsy, president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, has been living in self-imposed exile in France since November 2015 to avoid a two-year prison sentence in a defamation case brought by Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong.
In December 2016, the PPMC also sentenced, in absentia, him to another five years in prison for conspiring to incite chaos in the country through posting fake documents on his Facebook page.