Australian filmmaker jailed for spying in Cambodia

Australian documentary filmmaker James Ricketson has been sentenced to six years of imprisonment in Cambodia after he was found guilty of espionage.

He was held in prison for past 14 months, awaiting trial. During the seven-day trial he denied all the charges, but according to the prosecutor Ricketson was working for the political opposition against the country's Prime Minister Hun Sen, Variety reported.

Ricketson, on his way back to jail after receiving the sentence, was heard shouting "Who am I spying for?" During the hearing, the filmmaker insisted that his work was not political. The filmmaker was arrested after flying a camera drone over a Cambodian National Rescue Party rally.

Prosecutor Sieng Sok also claimed that the accused had been collecting political, economic and social information about Cambodia and sending it out to a foreign state for 22 years, until the day he was arrested. He said that while Ricketson was pretending to help poor Cambodians, he was actually filming the sites of the country's security forces.