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UN Rights Envoy to Visit in Wake of ‘Color Revolution’ Case
The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia will arrive for her second fact-finding mission today, following the U.N.’s censure of the government over the widely-criticized conviction of a political science student for calling for a “color revolution” on Facebook. Kong Raya was convicted of incitement to commit a felony last week for taking to his Facebook page last year to ask if anyone would “dare to make a color revolution with me?” The Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced him to a year-and-a-half in prison in a move rights groups rebuked as a heavy-handed attempt to stifle online criticism of the government in the leadup to commune and national elections.
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Pair Face Prison over Capital Tours Boycott Call
Two residents of Battambang face up to three years in prison for distributing leaflets calling on residents of the provincial capital to boycott the Capitol Tours bus company, the province’s deputy police chief Colonel Cheth Vanny said yesterday. Farmer Ly Hong, 46, was arrested on Friday while distributing leaflets near the town’s central market, Col. Vanny said, adding that he was charged by the provincial court on Saturday with violating Article 496 of the Penal Code, which makes “incitement to discriminate” a crime.
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Laws for protection of nature to be merged
The Kingdom’s disparate laws on protecting forests, fisheries, wildlife, natural resources and the environment in general will be merged into a single document early next year, according to the Environment Ministry. The current jumble of laws across different ministries created redundancies and contradictions, ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap said yesterday.
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Sam Rainsy Summoned to Court Over Facebook Lawsuit
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned opposition leader Sam Rainsy to appear for questioning in yet another court case, the third lawsuit he has been hit with since a warrant was issued for his arrest in November, according to a copy of the new summons obtained on Friday. The latest case involves a complaint filed by CPP minister Som Soeun over a post on Mr. Rainsy’s Facebook page earlier this month. Mr. Rainsy accused the minister of being involved in a plan to boost Prime Minister Hun Sen’s popularity on Facebook by hiring poor people in India and the Philippines to “like” the premier’s page.
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Ministry to Ease Off Detention in Land Disputes
The Ministry of Justice on Friday announced two key changes to court policy related to land dispute cases as part of the government’s broader efforts to improve its handling of such disputes in the lead-up to the 2018 national election. At a meeting of the country’s court directors and chief prosecutors at the ministry in Phnom Penh, Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana said that Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered him to ensure that villagers fighting to remain on their land would not be summarily jailed.
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Villagers, riot cop in fight over Preah Vihear burial site
More than 200 Preah Vihear families are locked in a land dispute with a Phnom Penh police officer over a 7-hectare burial site, with villagers alleging the officer drew his service pistol on them. Um Vanna is a Phnom Penh-based officer in the National Police’s riot squad. To the protests of local residents, Vanna lay claim to a burial site in Preah Vihear’s Sangkum Thmei district early last year.
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Judge Denies Medical Care for Jailed CNRP Activist
The Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a lower court verdict that forbid Cambodian-American opposition member Meach Sovannara from flying abroad and separated two other complaints from the decision so they could be dealt with at a later date. The two complaints concerned an attempt to annul a Municipal Court decision due to a procedural issue and an appeal of the guilty verdicts handed down to the 11 opposition activists.
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Nuon Chea Breaks Silence to Debate American Anthropologist
Nuon Chea on Thursday broke his silence at the Khmer Rouge tribunal to refute claims that the regime perceived the Vietnamese as “hereditary enemies,” and asked an American academic whether he believed the U.S. bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Second Indochina War constituted genocide.
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CNRP 11 see appeal punted to April, Sovannara denied
The Appeal Court yesterday delayed a bid by 11 imprisoned CNRP activists to contest their conviction for involvement in an “insurrection”, and ruled that one of the group, dual Cambodian and US citizen Meach Sovannara, was not allowed to leave the prison for medical treatment in Cambodia or abroad. In the controversial case’s first appeal hearing, lawyers for the group asked the court to nullify the July 2015 ruling by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentencing the men to between seven and 20 years in prison for their roles in an anti-government protest at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park in 2014.
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New program to fight gender-based violence
hysical, sexual and emotional violence against women is “common” in Ratanakkiri’s ethnic minority communities, and mostly committed by the victims’ husbands, a new gender-based violence report by CARE Cambodia has found. Marriage between young teenagers was also “common”, although the average age of early marriage (before 18 years old) had increased from about 13 to 14 years old to 15 to 16 years old.
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Hun Sen Names Date For Vote on New Cabinet
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said the National Assembly would vote on his proposed cabinet reshuffle on April 4 and that he was keeping the details under wraps until then, as his last two shakeups were leaked before he wanted them known.
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CNRP ‘Insurrection’ Appeal Hearings Begin
Appeal hearings began on Thursday in the case of 11 opposition figures who were convicted in July for insurrection over a 2014 political protest, with a CNRP official blasting the municipal court over double standards for rejecting his request to get medical treatment outside prison. A large part of the proceedings focused on how the court would deal with two appeals filed by the defendants, one contesting the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision to deliver a guilty verdict amid a boycott by most of the defense lawyers, and a second appeal against the guilty verdict itself.
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Draft law not ready: unions
A collective of Cambodian unions submitted a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen via Facebook on Tuesday requesting further revision of the controversial draft union law before it goes to the National Assembly on April 4. The unions say they support the draft union law in principle, but 18 key points relating to the number of members required to form a union and the number workers required to hold a strike, among others, have not been addressed in the review process.
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Ministry to examine detention of land detainees
Judicial officials from across the country will converge on Phnom Penh on Friday to report on the use of pre-trial detention for land dispute victims, it was announced yesterday. The meeting, publicised by a Justice Ministry directive, comes less than 48 hours after Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly denounced on Facebook the imprisonment of two women embroiled in a land dispute in Kampong Speu.
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Fear Hinders Independent Journalism in Cambodia, Survey Finds
Fear of government interference, legal repercussions and violence remain impediments to free and independent journalism in Cambodia, according to a survey released on Wednesday in a report by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM).
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Final Appeal of Boeng Kak Activists Rejected
The legal battle of 13 land rights activists from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood ended on Wednesday with the Supreme Court upholding their conviction for aggravated obstruction of public officials and illegal occupation. “The Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of the defendants’ lawyer and upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeal,” Judge Soeng Panhavuth told the court.
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Supreme Court Upholds Judgment of 13 Boeung Kak Protesters
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the Appeal Court decision not to drop charges against 13 Boeung Kak activists who protested against the development in 2012. Judge Soeung Panhavuth said the activist’s defense lawyer’s claims contradicted the truth and he believed the Appeals Court decision was in accordance with the law.
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Journos feel pressure from above: report
A new survey has found that more than half of local journalists reported that the institutions they work for are not independent, with nearly 60 per cent saying they don’t feel free to do their jobs without fear of repercussions. The Cambodian Center for Independent Media report interviewed 102 journalists from 43 institutions – publishing in Khmer, English and other languages – in 22 provinces.
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50 Fishermen Push Hard for Owed Wages
Nearly 50 residents of Kampong Chhnang province who were mistreated by the Giant Ocean International Fishery Co. Ltd. while working abroad asked for the assistance of human rights group Adhoc yesterday in order to expedite their former employer’s payment of owed wages, according to the rights group. Adhoc provincial coordinator Som Chankea said 45 workers of the more than 100 who are still owed wages have been filing complaints to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court since 2012. After noncompliance by the company, their case is now awaiting a hearing in the Supreme Court.
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Supreme Court Upholds Coup Attempt Verdicts
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld verdicts against six men convicted of attempting an armed overthrow of the government, as well as the defendants’ original jail sentences, which ranged from 15 to 17 years. The six were convicted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in 2011 of plotting a bloody coup d’etat as members of a group called Sovanna Phum, or Golden Village. The Appeal Court upheld the verdict in 2013.
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