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  • Bribery Charge for Commune Chief

    After a whole day of questioning, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) commune chief Seang Chet with bribing a witness after he allegedly gave $500 to the mother of Khom Chandaraty, also known as Srey Mom, and was detained in Prey Sar prison for further legal action. Court spokesman Ly Sophana said the investigative judge decided to temporarily detain Mr. Chet for bribing a witness under Article 548 of the Penal Code and he could be sentenced from five to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

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  • Hundreds protest Tbong Khmum land disputes in capital

    Several hundred protesters representing some 4,000 families from Tbong Khmum’s Memot and Dambe districts arrived in the capital yesterday to petition against powerful private interests they say are encroaching on their land. The demonstrators submitted petitions to the National Assembly, the Ministry of Land Management, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet and the Anti-Corruption Unit. The disputes involve several different companies and local officials.

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  • CNRP’s Sun TV hung up by ‘radiation’ fears

    The Kandal provincial governor’s office issued a letter on Tuesday responding to a complaint filed by residents in February against the construction of an antenna for the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s (CNRP) proposed Sun TV channel. The letter passed responsibility for dealing with the complaint to the ministries of land management, information and telecommunications, adding that no construction should take place until “a compromise is reached and local residents have given their approval”.

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  • Beaten lawmakers to skip hearing

    Opposition lawmakers Kong Saphea and Nhay Chamroeun have opted to boycott this morning’s opening of the trial of three men – Chay Sarith, 33, Mao Hoeun, 34, and Suth Vanny, 45 – accused of beating them outside of the National Assembly in October. Saphea said yesterday that he and Chamroeun, MPs for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), will not be present at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court because they believe Cambodian justice is a rigged game.

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  • Adhoc officials grilled for hours over Chandaraty case

    Three of four Adhoc officials who submitted themselves for questioning in the Khom Chandaraty case emerged from Anti-Corruption Unit headquarters late last evening after a marathon session that saw at least one of them questioned for nearly 13 hours. Senior Adhoc staffers Yi Soksan, Ny Sokha and Nay Vanda, all of whom were ordered to return for further questioning at 8 this morning, were summonsed last week following accusations by a 24-year-old salon worker that the rights group had asked her to lie to authorities about her alleged dealings with opposition deputy president Kem Sokha.

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  • CNRP Prohibited From Erecting TV Antenna

    Authorities in Kandal province’s Takhmao City have banned the opposition CNRP from erecting a television antenna on land they purchased there for what is meant to be Cambodia’s first opposition-aligned station—a key element of the July 2014 political deal. Takhmao governor Heng Thiem said authorities had decided on the ban following a February 19 complaint lodged by 21 families living around the land intended for the antenna for the CNRP’s “Sun TV” station in the city, located just south of Phnom Penh.

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  • Gov’t to Intervene in Men Sarun Land Dispute

    About 1,000 people involved in a long-running land dispute gathered outside both the National Assembly and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction yesterday to deliver a petition asking the government to grant them titles to land they claim is theirs. People from different communes and districts in Tbong Khmom province have been involved in a long land dispute with the Men Sarun Company and a number of tycoons and have asked the government to grant them land titles and investigate military officials who they claim ordered land grabs of their property.

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  • Activist Says Lawsuit About Making Sokha ‘Afraid’

    Former opposition party activist Thy Sovantha claimed yesterday that she filed a defamation lawsuit against Kem Sokha, the acting president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), and demanded $1 million in compensation as a warning to the politician. After appearing at Phnom Penh Municipal Court to answer questions about her complaint, which also included a demand to find the owner of the leaked audio tape that set the widespread controversy in motion, she confirmed that the main reason behind her lawsuit was to condemn Mr. Sokha’s behavior as he discredited her in the leaked audio tapes and to force him to think about the way he deals with women.

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  • Hun Sen Says Peace Trumps Free Expression

    A day after the ruling party filed a defamation complaint against one of the country’s most prominent political commentators, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday defended limitations on freedom of speech as being necessary for peace and stability.

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  • Asking about RCAF envelopes could be crime, says ACU boss

    The sons of Om Yentieng – the Anti-Corruption Unit chief who is personally spearheading widely criticised probes into opposition figures and members of civil society – have been promoted to “assistants” to the body and given higher ranks. Slammed as “nepotistic” by one transparency advocate, news of the promotion came as Yentieng threatened legal action against yet another opposition figure, Khmer Power Party (KPP) president Sourn Seray Ratha, who had asked the anti-graft boss to clarify what was in envelopes he distributed to soldiers in Preah Vihear province on April 6.

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  • Rights Group Says Anti-Corruption Unit’s Claims Baseless

    Adhoc president Thun Saray on Tuesday defended his rights group’s pro-bono legal representation of the alleged mistress of deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha, who last week rescinded her denials of the affair and accused Adhoc staff of convincing her to lie. Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) Chairman Om Yentieng has summoned five of Adhoc’s rights workers, a U.N. official, an election administrator and a women’s rights advocate for questioning this week over Khom Chandaraty’s claim they urged her to lie about the affair.

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  • Banned Chut Wutty film screened in capital

    Despite a government ban, a documentary about Chut Wutty was screened at several locations around Phnom Penh yesterday to mark the fourth anniversary of the environmentalist’s murder – but not without some interference. The Ministry of Culture last week ordered the managers of the Meta House Café not to show the film on the grounds that the film had not been submitted for approval.

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  • Adhoc on Defensive after Accusations

    Rights group Adhoc has no plans to file a complaint against Khom Chandaraty, the alleged mistress of acting opposition president Kem Sokha, despite her accusing various members of encouraging her to give false testimony during police questioning earlier this month. The NGO that provided their accuser with legal council is, however, prepared to present evidence in their defense to the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), members of Adhoc said yesterday. On April 25 the ACU issued a summons to Ms. Chandaraty’s former lawyer Try Chhoun for questioning today and tomorrow as well as to Adhoc official Lim Mony, Adhoc’s head of monitoring Ny Sokha and both deputy heads of investigation at the organization, Yi Soksan and Nay Vanda.

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  • Only Virak suit in works: CPP

    A day after prominent political commentator Ou Virak was slapped with a defamation complaint, a Cambodian People’s Party spokesman said the filing of cases against people who maligned the party would be limited to Virak – for now. Sok Eysan, himself a complainant in the case, said that while no other suits were planned at the moment, the party would keep an eye out for analysts and commentators who, as in Virak’s case, allegedly twisted the truth and hurt the CPP’s dignity.

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  • Amid Sokha Probe, Maimed Starlet Speaks Out

    Feeding rice porridge to her young niece outside Phnom Penh’s Olympic Market in 1999, Tat Marina, then the 15-year-old mistress of CPP official Svay Sitha, was dragged to the ground by the official’s wife, who then poured a liter of flesh-eating nitric acid on her. The savage act of revenge carried out in broad daylight left Ms. Marina’s lips burned to blisters; the skin on her face, neck, back, chest and wrists melted. Doctors had to remove her ears, and the music video star could not talk for months after.

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  • CPP Files Another Defamation Case Against Rainsy

    The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has once again issued a warrant summoning Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Sam Rainsy for a hearing in July, this time over a defamation case filed by National Assembly president Heng Samrin. The CNRP president is now in self-imposed exile in France after a warrant was issued for his arrest over a 2008 defamation case filed by Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) Foreign Minister Hor Namhong in November last year.

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  • Adhoc denies ‘Srey Mom’ allegations

    Rights group Adhoc defended itself yesterday against allegations it had asked 24-year-old hairdresser Khom Chandaraty to lie about her alleged affair with CNRP acting president Kem Sokha, calling on Chandaraty to retract the claim. At a press conference yesterday, Adhoc director Thun Saray said the organisation had extended Chandaraty legal services because she was distressed and scared when she approached them, but was taken aback when she changed her statement while appearing before the public prosecutor.

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  • CPP Files Defamation Suit Against Analyst

    The CPP on Monday filed a defamation complaint against one of the country’s most prominent political analysts for suggesting that the ruling party was using an increasingly litigious sex scandal involving CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha as a means to damage the political opposition. The complaint was filed just hours after Prime Minister Hun Sen used his Facebook page to issue a warning to commentators. It targets Ou Virak, head of the Future Forum think tank, over a radio interview he gave on Sunday and demands 400 million riel, or about $100,000, for “affecting the dignity and prestige of the Cambodian People’s Party.”

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  • PM threatens to use courts to silence pundits, with Virak top of list

    Prime Minister Hun Sen has called for legal action against those who “twist” the truth to malign the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, taking aim at the nation’s political analysts and commentators, with one of its most prominent, Ou Virak, the first in the crosshairs. The threat, which was posted on the premier’s Facebook page yesterday, said the CPP respected individuals’ right to expression and had tolerated defamation in the past, but the party would now “preserve its right to defend its honour and dignity” if people attempted to smear it in public, singling out pundits.

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  • Land dispute petitions lodged with government

    Five groups of land evictees marched to the Council of Ministers yesterday to submit petitions. Between 30 and 40 evictees, from Chroy Changvar and a handful of other commuities involved in land disputes, were received by council adviser Seng Savorn who pledged to send the petitions to National Authority for Land Disputes and Resolution’s chairman, Bin Chhin.

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