A/HRC/7/10/Add.1 page 72 Observations 313. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response. Communication sent on 30 November 2007 jointly with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders 314. The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding the situation of Mr. Tim Sa Khorn, chief monk in the North Phnom Denh temple and member of the Khmer Krom community in Cambodia. Mr. Tim Sa Khorn acquired Cambodian citizenship after he moved in 1979 to the commune of Phnom Denh in Kirivong District in Takeo Province because of acts of harassment against him. According to the information received, on 8 November 2007, the People’s Court of Justice of the An Giang Province, Southern Vietnam, sentenced Mr. Tim Sa Khorn to one year’s imprisonment for “sabotaging the unification policy” under Article 87 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, following a pre-trial incommunicado detention of more than four months. The trial reportedly failed to meet international standards as Mr. Tim Sa Khorn was denied the right to be represented by a lawyer and to present his defence, including the opportunity to present his own witnesses or crossexamine prosecution witnesses. Instead, he was forced to repeat a text read by the judge. 315. In 2002, Mr. Tim Sa Khorn was appointed as chief monk of North Phnom-Denh temple. On 16 June 2007, Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong issued a religious decree in both Cambodian and Vietnamese languages to defrock Mr. Tim Sa Khorn, accusing him of conducting activities that were harmful to the Cambodia-Vietnam friendship. Subsequently, the Vietnamese authorities allegedly circulated this decree to Khmer Krom Buddhist temples. On 3 July 2007, a spokesperson of the Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs declared that Mr. Tim Sa Khorn “had returned to Vietnam” after reportedly being summoned to the office of the religious head of the Takeo Province in Cambodia and being forced to enter a car. On 2 August 2007 Vietnamese authorities announced that he had been arrested for having illegally entered the country. Response from the Government dated 29 January 2008 316. The Government conveyed the following information and clarifications. Mr. Tim Sa Khorn, born in 1968, was residing at North Tham Dung temple, Tri Ton District in the Ta Keo Province of Cambodia. Since April 2005, Mr. Tim Sa Khorn joined the “Khmers KampucheaKrom Federation” (KKF) and for many times accepted money and equipments to arouse hatred among nations, falsely accused Vietnam of suppression against religions and the Khmer minority in Vietnam. On 16 June 2007, the Central Managing Board of the Cambodian Buddhism issued the decision No. 502/07 DN dismissing Mr. Tim Sa Khorn from the monk community for reasons that he had wrongfully conducted activities violating Buddhist dogmatics. 317. On 30 June 2007, Mr. Tim Sa Khorn illegally entered Vietnam. He was arrested and provisionally detained by the Vietnamese border guards. He carried a number of distorted documents aimed at undermining policies for the solidarity of all ethnic minorities in Vietnam. Mr. Tim Sa Khorn admitted to the law enforcement agency of the An Giang Province that while he lived in Cambodia, he joined the KKF and together with a number of Khmer from Southern Vietnam wearing bronze clothes often organized gatherings to arouse hatred against Vietnam, to lure the Khmer minority in Vietnam to request the secession from Vietnam and to create pretexts to accuse the Government of Vietnam of suppressing the Khmer minority.