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Court in No Hurry to Charge Timber Traders
As the government prepares to start auctioning off the 70,000 cubic meters of illegal timber it has seized so far this year, not one of the companies on whose property it was found—nor anyone else—has been charged over the wood, following months of court procedures. The lack of progress is fueling old doubts about whether the government, oft accused of facilitating much of the country’s illegal timber trade, wants to identify and prosecute those responsible.
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CNRP calls for ‘culture of dialogue’ to resume
Following an escalation in political tensions after the attempted arrest of the opposition’s acting president Kem Sokha, the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s Eng Chhay Eang yesterday verbally requested the National Assembly start negotiations with the ruling party. Chhay Eang said negotiations could use working groups created by each party last year to restart the much-touted “culture of dialogue” process, which had ultimately broken down.
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Hong Sok Hour bail ruling delayed
Cambodia’s Supreme Court yesterday did not make a scheduled ruling on jailed Sam Rainsy Party Senator Hong Sok Hour’s second bail plea and his appeal to reject a lower court’s request to hand over his computer to investigators. During court proceedings, Sok Hour said lower courts wanted his computer in order to collect evidence, but he instead proposed using the internet to verify the contested documents on his Facebook page.
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ILLEGAL MIGRANTS TO BE DEPORTED
Sixty illegal Vietnamese and Chinese laborers were arrested in Kampot province yesterday. Major General Uk Heisela, director of inspection and procedure at the General Department of Immigration, said that joint forces raided a construction site in Kampong Trach district where they found the laborers.
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Sokha urges peaceful struggle as PM denies crisis
Addressing a crowd of lawmakers, supporters and monks at opposition headquarters yesterday, CNRP acting president Kem Sokha demanded that the immunity accorded to Cambodian lawmakers be respected, as Prime Minister Hun Sen, in a speech some 200 kilometres away, denied the existence of a political crisis in the country. The embattled Cambodia National Rescue Party leader, who has been holed up in the headquarters since May 26 following an attempt by the police to arrest him, urged party supporters attending a Buddhist ceremony at the headquarters to continue their struggle for justice and reiterated the party’s stand to address the current crisis in a nonviolent fashion.
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ING project prompts request for land titles
Ten people representing 380 families who fear they will be affected by an ING Holdings project in the south of Phnom Penh yesterday submitted a letter to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Development and Construction requesting that the villagers’ land be cut out of the satellite city’s development design. In the letter, villagers also demand that the ministry provide them land titles for their properties. The satellite city is expected to cover 2,572 hectares of land reclaimed from the Boeung Tompun and Boeung Choeung Ek wetlands.
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TV journalist appeals jail term for extortion
A TV9 journalist, jailed for two years for demanding money from Kampot’s provincial governor to have a story about sand dredging taken off the air, yesterday appealed for a more lenient sentence. According to a report read in the Appeal Court, the accused, Thong Hokly, who was not at the hearing, had been told about the dredging in Andong Khmer commune by a local villager, Nam Yuong, in 2010 and posted a short clip on Facebook.
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MORE GOV’T ARRESTS FOR THUMBPRINT COLLECTION
Authorities yesterday released three opposition officials arrested in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Koh Kong provinces for attempting to collect thumbprints for a petition asking King Norodom Sihamoni to secure the release of jailed human rights officials. Commune council member from the Sam Rainsy Party Hem Hang said she was arrested yesterday morning as she canvassed her neighborhood for thumbprints. But by the afternoon, she was released.
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Trio accused of clearing Mondulkiri land released on bail
The Mondulkiri Provincial Court yesterday released on bail three ethnic Phnong villagers charged with illegally clearing state land on the condition that they agree not to return to their homes and farms. The trio was arrested on Sunday having allegedly felled trees on government property in Pech Chreada district’s Pou Chrei commune.
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Duch refutes Chea’s denial of being his superior in KRT testimony
After a four-year absence from the court that convicted him of crimes against humanity, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, returned to the Khmer Rouge tribunal to testify yesterday, calling Nuon Chea’s denial of overseeing the deadly S-21 prison “nonsense”. Duch is the former chairman of the notorious S-21 prison, where more than 12,000 people were imprisoned, tortured and sent to their deaths. He is serving a life sentence at Kandal Provincial Prison.
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Police form 26 groups to verify CNRP petition signatures
Twenty-six working groups from the National Police are to work with the Interior Ministry’s identification department to verify thousands of thumbprints on a petition to the King delivered by the opposition party last week. National Police chief Neth Savoeun made the announcement in a statement yesterday as people in at least three provinces were warned by police to stop collecting thumbprints for the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s second petition, expected to be delivered on June 13.
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Hun Sen Vows to Preserve Peace, Rejects Talk of Political ‘Crisis’
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday rebuked those who have labeled the current political situation a “crisis,” urging his audience of young garment workers to be glad they did not have to live through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. Rights groups, analysts and observers have warned of a rapidly worsening political climate over the past several months, which has seen the arrests of rights workers and opposition lawmakers in cases widely seen as politically motivated. The CNRP announced a boycott of parliament last month in protest of the arrests of its lawmakers despite their legal immunity.
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Sokha Thanks Supporters as Police Detain Party Activists
Deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha delivered a speech on Tuesday thanking CNRP supporters for preventing authorities from arresting him, as police in a number of provinces detained opposition officials for collecting thumbprints for a new petition to the king. Mr. Sokha has not left the CNRP’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district since May 26, when armed police stormed the area around the building and stopped his wife’s car, apparently believing him to be inside, in an attempt to arrest him for failing to turn up in court.
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After Four Years, Duch Returns to Tribunal
More than four years after he last stepped foot in the courtroom, Kaing Guek Eav, the S-21 prison chief better known as Duch, returned to the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Tuesday and said that Nuon Chea’s attempts to distance himself from atrocities committed at the notorious security center were “nonsense.” In 2010, Duch, who oversaw the torture and execution of more than 15,000 people at the prison in Phnom Penh, became the first Khmer Rouge official to be found guilty of crimes committed during the Pol Pot regime, during which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished.
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New UN app details rights of assembly
As authorities continue to detain opposition supporters and land rights activists for “unpermitted” protests, the United Nation’s human rights agency has released a smartphone app to inform Cambodians on their rights to assembly. The software details the rights enshrined in Cambodia’s 2009 Law on Peaceful Demonstrations and addresses the implementing guidelines, said UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights country representative Wan-Hea Lee.
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Publisher says officials involved in illegal timber
A local newspaper publisher has appealed directly to Prime Minister Hun Sen for help after provincial officials allegedly crashed into his car and threatened him in order to hide timber smuggling activities. Chan Thy, the publisher of Nokor Meas newspaper, wrote two letters to the premier claiming two officials from the provincial department of the Ministry of National Assembly-Senate Relations and an accomplice from the military police conspired to crash their cars into his.
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CNRP Accuses Village Chief, Soldiers of Damaging Signs
Police are investigating a complaint filed by CNRP activists in Oddar Meanchey province accusing a CPP village chief of tearing down their signs in Samraong City last month. Monh Sarath, head of the CNRP’s provincial working group, said the party had informed local authorities of the party’s plans to erect the pro-opposition signs. But when party supporters started setting them up in Bansay Reak commune on May 29, he said, they were accosted by a group of political rivals.
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Government Sets Dates for Timber Auctions
The majority of the 70,000 cubic meters of timber confiscated by the government this year will be put to bid starting later this month at a combined initial asking price of $12.2 million, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance on Monday. The timber, enough to fill more than 2,000 standard 6-meter shipping containers, was seized by a special task force set up by Prime Minister Hun Sen in January to root out illegal wood stocks across eastern Cambodia. Most of it was found on rubber plantations, in or around sawmills, or in state forests.
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Group’s claim of NEC graft rejected by ACU
The Anti-Corruption Unit yesterday rejected a complaint from an NGO alleging National Election Committee officials were guilty of corruption when the body’s staff shifted from being independent contractors to government officials. Appearing before the ACU, Ros Sarom, director of Victory Intelligent Standard Association, which claims to represent 10,000 intellectuals, government officials and NGO workers, said contract workers moved up to become relatively high ranking government officials after the February change of NEC staff’s employment status.
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RETRIAL FOR PROVINCIAL A COURT OFFICIAL
A July retrial has been ordered by the Appeal Court for Preah Vihear Provincial Court’s deputy prosecutor after he was convicted of overstepping his judicial authority. Thul Kimhoang was initially sentenced to three years in prison – all of which was suspended – for releasing two suspected drug traffickers from detention without the approval of his superior in exchange for a combined 12 million riel in bail in 2012. Only a provincial investigative judge has the authority to release suspects on bail.
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