Crime and law enforcement

Friends of Canadian journalist Dave Walker, who went missing under mysterious circumstances in February and was found dead in Siem Reap province last week, expressed anger Wednesday at the Cambodian police’s apparent unwillingness to investigate the 58-year-old’s death. Two-and-a-half months after the journalist vanished after going ...

A 19-month-old girl critically injured when her mother was stabbed to death in their Phnom Penh home last month has died in a Bangkok hospital, a Dutch Embassy official confirmed Thursday. “I can confirm this,” said an official at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Bangkok, ...

Better laws and enforcement that require motorbike riders and children to wear helmets could save more than 500 lives and $100 million over the next six years, a new study says. The study, undertaken by the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation, says a new law now ...

A World Bank-supported rubber company accused of land grabs has suspended some of its projects, as an investigation by the bank continues. The Hoang Anh Gia Lai company, which received support from the bank’s International Finance Corporation, said in a decision following an April 2 ...

At least three workers were arrested Tuesday morning outside the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kompong Speu province, where the Free Trade Union (FTU) has been leading a strike calling for benefits and back pay, according to police and a union representative. An FTU representative said ...

A group of 13 Vietnamese nationals were apprehended by Cambodian fishermen on Sunday night while illegally fishing off the coast of Kampot province and are being held for repatriation, according to a village representative and the provincial governor. Neak Sen, a representative of a fishing community ...

Defendants in a mass trial of 25 men and teenagers accused of joining a string of violent garment worker protests continued to profess their innocence during the second day of hearings at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the men were arrested in ...

A court in Phnom Penh put off for the second time Tuesday the trial of 23 Cambodians arrested during a deadly worker strike crackdown, drawing criticism from rights groups who said the move was politically motivated. After a five-hour hearing, with hundreds of riot police manning ...

Police on Sunday detained a CNRP activist and confiscated 347 political video-CDs that he was transporting to the party’s headquarters in Phnom Penh, police and opposition party officials said Monday. The VCDs showed violent police and military repressions of land and labor activists and last ...

Some 500 supporters of union leader Vorn Pao and 24 others arrested during a string of garment worker protests since November will rally in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday on the second day of their trials, a union official said. All 25 ...

Condemnation has grown following Friday’s attack on a journalist near Freedom Park as the Ministry of Information joined the U.N. Human Rights Office in denouncing the attacks. On Saturday, the U.N.’s human rights representative in Cambodia, Wan-Hea Lee, called for an investigation into the beating of ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged two more alleged members of the hacking group Anonymous Cambodia on Monday, as other members of Anonymous claimed to hack at least four government websites, including that of the National Police. The two men, Keo Sipheng, 26, and Hok Ratana, ...

Observers expect the trial of 23 people arrested during early January strike demonstrations will not be completed today, due to the number of witnesses who may testify. “I think the trial would take more than the time [available today],” Ham Samrith, senior lawyer for the Community ...

Union activist Vorn Pao and 20 other workers and activists who have been jailed since the violent suppression of garment protests in early January had their request for bail heard for the fifth time on Friday, this time by the Supreme Court. Mr. Pao, the president ...

The head of the Post and Telecommunications Ministry’s inspection department was arrested Friday and questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday for allegedly having stolen about $100,000 from the ministry over several years, according to Minister Prak Sokhon. He said Chem Sangva was reported ...

A monk, an opposition lawmaker-elect and a journalist, all assaulted by Daun Penh district security guards near Freedom Park on Friday, said they are in the process of filing legal complaints against the district forces as they recover from their injuries. “I am planning on filing ...

For months now, Daun Penh district security forces, identifiable by their dark blue uniforms, black motorbike helmets and merciless truncheon swinging, have been unleashed on protesters, opposition and otherwise, as the all-too-willing enforcers of government-approved crackdowns. But as district forces have begun targeting more journalists during ...

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri on Friday wrapped up a five-day mission to Cambodia, saying that she was concerned and “deeply saddened” by the violent beating of bystanders and journalists after a May Day gathering near a cordoned-off Freedom Park. In prepared ...

The body of a Canadian journalist who went missing in Siem Reap 10 weeks ago has been found inside the temple complex of Angkor Wat, officials said Thursday. David Walker, 58, disappeared from his guesthouse in the tourist town on Feb. 14, while working on a ...

On the sidelines of a government event marking International Labor Day, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Thursday blamed recent strikes in Bavet City on unnamed provocateurs, but said efforts were underway to resolve the dispute. He also said that a government-ordered shutdown of the 30-plus ...

Three people have filed separate complaints against a Phnom Penh district official, accusing him of ordering violence in a clash between security forces and bystanders near Freedom Park last week. At least 10 people were injured in clashes last Monday, as opposition member Mu Sochua staged ...

Police in Svay Rieng province on Tuesday arrested a garment worker for allegedly breaking a car window during a strike that turned violent in Bavet City the day before, and have filed complaints to the provincial court against two union representatives accused of defamation. The arrest ...

Police on Tuesday night arrested a 35-year-old man they say confessed to the murder of Dutch national Daphna Beerdsen and the brutal attack on her 19-month-old daughter in a burglary gone awry at their home just off Norodom Boulevard on Monday. National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith ...

A peaceful Labor Day demonstration of workers calling for better living conditions and independent courts was violently dispersed Thursday morning by district security guards, municipal police and men in plain clothes, who beat protesters, journalists and bystanders with batons, wooden sticks and crude metal poles. Shortly ...