PHNOM PENH, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Appeal Court on Thursday upheld the decision of a lower court to sentence former opposition leader Kem Sokha to 27 years in prison on the charge of treason, according to one of his lawyers.

Sokha appeared in the court to hear the verdict.

Pheng Heng, one of Sokha's lawyers, told reporters after the verdict that the Appeal Court also decided to ban Sokha from leaving the country for five years.

Under the Cambodian law, Sokha has a month to appeal to the Supreme Court if he is not satisfied with the Appeal Court's ruling.

Sokha, former president of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was sentenced by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in 2023 to 27 years in prison for treason, but was ordered to serve his sentence in home detention.

The 72-year-old former opposition leader was convicted of conspiring with a "foreign power" in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate Cambodian government and he was arrested in 2017.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court also banned him from doing politics for life. ■