Even before a Cambodian judge sentenced land rights activist Tep Vanny to jail, her fellow campaigners said her fate had already been sealed.

Vanny - who fought the evictions of thousands of residents from lakeside land in the capital Phnom Penh to make way for a luxury real estate project - was sentenced to two and a half years in prison…for her role in a protest outside Prime Minister Hun Sen's residence in 2013.

She was found guilty of inciting violence and assaulting security guards while trying to deliver a petition to Hun Sen on the land dispute.

The conviction came in the face of eyewitness testimony that neither Vanny or other protesters had committed acts of violence and was criticized by campaigners as another step in a crackdown on dissent in the Southeast Asian nation…