A Californian accountant has appeared in a Los Angeles federal court for plotting to take over Cambodia with a group of freedom fighters, reports the New York Sun.

Cambodian-American Yasith Chhun, 52, faces charges of conspiracy to kill overseas, to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, to use a weapon of mass destruction outside America and violation of the Neutrality Act.

Prosecutor Lamar Baker said: 'This accountant from the city of Long Beach decided he was going to take over a country, and he was willing to take lives in order to do so.'

Chhun, who worked from an office in a California strip mall, hoped to become interim president of Cambodia over throwing prime mMinister Hun Sen, who had been a brigade commander under Pol Pot. His group, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, got as far as throwing grenades into coffee shops and karaoke bars.

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The New York Sun