CAMBODIAN opposition leader Sam Rainsy was allowed into Indonesia after arriving on a Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta flight today.

Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy told The Malaysian Insight that the 70-year-old leader cleared the immigration and customs checkpoints at Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta International Airport.

“Good news. Mr Rainsy safely arrived in Jakarta. Going to meeting with MPs,” he said.

Rainsy’s colleague Mu Sochua also tweeted that he has arrived in Jakarta.

A source last night told The Malaysian Insight that Rainsy who lived in exile in France was blocked from flying to Indonesia.

The source did not state any reason.

Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) told Reuters that Rainsy was stopped from boarding a plane to Jakarta following an order from Indonesian authorities.

Rainsy, on the other hand, updated his official Facebook account saying that he missed his flight to Jakarta.

Rainsy, a co-founder of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), arrived in Kuala Lumpur International Airport on November 9 after he was barred from boarding a Thai Airways flight from Paris where he lives in exile.

On Tuesday, he met Pakatan Harapan MPs at Parliament and told reporters later that now is the “best time” for Cambodian opposition figures to return to the country as Prime Minister Hun Sen is under pressure to democratise.

Phomn Penh faces the threat of trade sanctions by the European Union if it refuses to recognise the opposition.

It was widely reported that Cambodian opposition figures are planning to return by land across the border with Thailand.

CNRP was established in 2012, when the Candlelight Party founded by Rainsy merged with the Human Rights party.

Hun Sen banned the party in 2017. – November 14, 2019.