Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy will challenge a French magazine in a French court next week over an article he says falsely linked him with the Khmer Rouge guerrilla movement, his party announced on Monday.
Sam Rainsy contends that Le Monde Diplomatique harmed his reputation by reporting in its March 1999 issue that he "collaborated with the Khmer Rouge" during the 1980s and early 1990s.
The outspoken opposition leader will make his case in front of a court in Paris on November 23, the Sam Rainsy Party said in a statement.
The Khmer Rouge earned a reputation as one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century for its radical communist experiments that led to the deaths of 1,7 million Cambodians during the late 1970s.
After the ousting of the Khmer Rouge by an invading Vietnamese army in 1979, Sam Rainsy was a senior member of a royalist Cambodian faction that allied itself with the guerrillas in UN-supported opposition to Vietnamese occupation.
Cambodian politicians have had several run-ins with the French press in recent years.
Prime Minister Hun Sen successfully sued Le Figaro newspaper for an article that accused him of drug trafficking and corruption, winning 50 000 francs (about R50 000) in 1998.
Hun Sen's wife, Bun Rany, threatened to sue L'Express magazine last month after it published an article accusing her of ordering the murder of a Cambodian film star who allegedly had an affair with the prime minister.
Hun Sen has accused Sam Rainsy of orchestrating the story in an attempt to destabilise the Cambodian government. - Sapa-AP