Hun Sen’s government didn’t respond to questions from Reuters for this article. This means they canât travel to the United States unless on official business. Photos posted on Instagram by a family nanny helped lead Reuters to a posh apartment in central London, situated only a few hundred metres from the palace of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Hun Sen was educated at a Buddhist monastery in Phnom Penh.In the late 1960s he joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea and in 1970 joined the Khmer Rouge.During the regime of Pol Pot (1975–79), when an estimated two million Cambodians lost their lives, Hun Sen fled to Vietnam, joining troops there opposed to the Khmer Rouge. The Asian Development Bank estimates that 70% of people live on about $3 a day, and Hun Sen has long projected himself as a leader who suffers alongside his poorest compatriots. . It could now be worth at least £3.5 million, estimates the real estate website Zoopla. Getting a Cypriot passport also makes the niece a citizen of the European Union, which Cyprus joined in 2004. . Hun Chantha also co-owns London apartments worth £5 million, property records show. He returned to Cambodia after the Vietnamese installed a new government in 1979 and was made minister of foreign affairs. Photo from Vichhuna Nethâs Instagram, âSatisfied my cravings after 4 days away from civilisation #backinlondon #worthit #harrods,â Vichhuna Neth wrote on Instagram beside a picture of a tin of caviar, Vichhuna Neth, with Chanel bag, on a flight from Delhi to London. Hun Sen is 67 and has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for more than three decades.
Last year, Human Rights Watch named him as one of 12 generals who form “the backbone of an abusive and authoritarian political regime.” The Cambodian defense ministry called the report “fabricated.” Neth Savoeun is also a senior member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. The document detailing the citizenship of Hun Kimleng and her family is part of a tranche of interior ministry documents that Reuters has seen. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. In 2017, the U.S. State Department put Neth Savoeun, Hun Kimleng and their three children on a “visa blacklist” for undermining democracy, according to a U.S. official and another source.
REUTERS/Stringer, FILE - Cambodia's finance minister, Aun Pornmoniroth, speaks to the press in Phnom Penh, June 7, 2016. But he couldn’t help himself. Some conservationists and other critics say it has fueled a property boom that has priced out ordinary Cypriots and harmed the environment.
These detail thousands of applications for Cypriot passports by wealthy foreigners. He has jailed or exiled political rivals, shut down media outlets and crushed street protests. In the confidential document, the Cypriot interior minister urges the cabinet to grant citizenship to Neth Savoeun and two grown-up daughters, and notes that they have never visited Cyprus. For some members of Cambodia’s elite, Cypriot passports are trappings of luxurious lifestyles that could undermine Prime Minister Hun Sen’s self-styled image as the humble leader of a party representing ordinary Cambodians. But a Reuters investigation shows that those closest to Hun Sen have done exactly that. Hun Sen is 67Â and has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for more than three decades. His recent troubles trace back to a general election in 2013. Reuters reporting shows that his firm handled the applications of the Cambodian finance minister, Aun; the leading business couple, Choeung and Lau; and their family members. In the parliamentary elections of 2008, the CPP again emerged victorious, with three-fourths of the assembly seats, and Hun Sen entered yet another term as Cambodia’s prime minister. “Cyprus,” she gushed, “you’ve been AMAZING! Choeung Sopheap and her husband, Lau Ming Kan, created Pheapimex, a giant conglomerate. Demetris Demetriades, a senior partner, said the firm had processed “hundreds” of applications, but declined to confirm the interior ministry’s tally of 137 or talk about specific clients. The highways and roads leading there are flanked by billboards erected by property developers and aimed at foreigners looking for residency or citizenship.
Family members and key police, business and political associates have overseas assets worth tens of millions of dollars, and have used their wealth to buy foreign citizenship â a practice Hun Sen has decried as unpatriotic and at times has sought to outlaw. And while the prime minister spoke about eating grass, Instagram showed some relatives feasting on caviar in London. Most Cambodians were âhappy and congratulated us,â Hun Panhaboth told Reuters. The interior ministry documents also say that applications for citizenship contain âsensitive personal dataâ and shouldn't be made public. “Caesar's wife must not only be honest, but must also look honest,” he said. Below an overview. Neth Savoeun | Hun Kimlengâs husband and Cambodiaâs national police chief. !”, Additional reporting by Michele Kambas in Athens, On Instagram and Facebook, Hun Sen's family and associates chart their life of luxury, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, pictured here with his bodyguards in 1997, is one of the world’s longest serving leaders. Other critics were picked off in a wave of arrests and prosecutions, and one was silenced permanently: Kem Ley, a well-known activist, shot dead in broad daylight in July 2016. Several decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen continued to grapple with fostering national reconciliation and prosecuting the surviving members of the Pol Pot regime for war crimes. In February 2019, in a rare public disclosure, the Cypriot government said it had approved 1,864 applications between 2013 and 2018, involving transactions totalling â¬6.6 billion. In 2018, with his rivals cowed or silenced, Hun Sen held another general election.
Getting a Cypriot passport also makes the niece a citizen of the European Union, which Cyprus joined in 2004. Between January 2013 and August 2018, its modest office processed 137 âcitizenship by investmentâ applications worth hundreds of millions of euros to Cyprus. This gives her the right to live, work and travel without visas in 28 EU countries. In the late 1960s he joined the Communist Party of Kampuchea and in 1970 joined the Khmer Rouge. He sought Cypriot citizenship along with two of his daughters in 2017. “I really don’t see the harm in that anyways,” he said. Each applicant must invest at least â¬2 million in Cyprus. “That doesn’t mean that they’re bad people,” he said. He who owns real estate properties and telecommunications, if not the media sector. She also owns a multi-million-dollar apartment in a luxury condo in Singapore, according to the Singapore Land Authority. In September 2017, three months before the interior ministry’s document was issued, she bought a London apartment near her mother’s, according to British property records. The Mediterranean resort town of Paphos is a two-hour drive from the capital. âCambodian girls in Mykonos,â wrote Vichhuna Neth on Instagram, Hun Panhaboth, the son of one of the prime ministerâs nieces, with a fistful of cash. The cabinet always accepts the ministryâs recommendation, Cyprusâs interior minister told Reuters.