About 10,000 Cambodians protested in the capital on Sunday to show their anger at an opposition leader who allegedly described a notorious Khmer Rouge prison as a Vietnamese invention. The rally came two days after parliament passed a law banning the denial of atrocities committed by the hardline communist regime -- a move which the opposition claimed was politically motivated before elections in July.

Cambodia on Friday banned the denial of atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime with a new law, a move the opposition claims is a political attack weeks ahead of national polls. The law bans statements denying crimes by the communist regime that ruled from 1975-79 killing an estimated two million people, and carries a sentence of up to two years in jail.

It has been hailed as a chance to heal a traumatised nation, but former foot soldiers of the brutal Khmer Rouge say Cambodia's genocide trial is a waste of money that will only re-open old wounds. The landmark case against the most senior surviving leaders of the hardline communist regime, which began in 2011, has been described as one of the world's most complex in decades and is costing tens of millions of dollars.

Cambodia's cash-strapped war crimes tribunal has staved off a strike by local staff over unpaid wages that would have further delayed the trial of two Khmer Rouge leaders, officials said on Friday. About 270 Cambodian employees at the UN-backed court -- including drivers, prosecutors and judges -- have not received their salaries for this year and had threatened to walkout at the start of April. The tribunal has been frequently short of cash since it was set up in 2006 to push for justice for the deaths of up to two million people under the hardline communist regime.