Court Upholds Sentence for Long Beach Accountant who Tried to Overthrow Cambodian Government

A federal appeals panel today upheld a life prison term for a former Long Beach accountant who staged a failed coup against Cambodia's prime minister in 2000.

Yasith Chhun, a 57-year-old U.S. citizen, was sentenced in 2010 in Los Angeles federal court for conspiring to kill in a foreign country and other federal counts stemming from his 2008 conviction.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena determined "there was sufficient evidence for the jury to conclude that the defendant had the intent to commit murder," according to the opinion.

In rejecting the appeal, the panel held that "illegal conduct will not be shielded from punishment just because it is 'noble.' The court rejected Chhun's pleas for leniency because he caused the deaths of innocent people."

Chhun was the self-appointed commander of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a Long Beach-based group formed to seize political control in the southeast Asian country.

Long Beach is home to nearly 20,000 people of Cambodian descent, roughly 4 percent of the population.

Chunn was found guilty after a two-week trial of the four charges against him -- conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

Before he was sentenced, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson expressed some sympathy for the defendant, who told the judge he formed the 200-strong Cambodian Freedom Fighters partly to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

"I don't think Mr. Chhun is an evil human being," the judge said. "I think he's had a tragic life -- and had the misfortune of being born in a place where terrible things were happening."

Chhun's group staged a November 2000 attack -- dubbed "Operation Volcano" -- on government buildings in Cambodia's capital. Several police officers and rebels were killed in the attack, before the government sent in tanks to quell the uprising.

The government of Cambodia later issued an Interpol warrant for Chhun's arrest.

Chhun was born in Cambodia and emigrated to the United States as a child.

The Khmer Rouge regime led by dictator Pol Pot has been blamed for the deaths of as many as 3 million people between 1975 and 1979.

--City News Service