Crime and law enforcement

A prosecutor at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court has urged a youth organiser to provide the court with more evidence in his lawsuit against Prime Minister Hun Sen, promising to hear the case if ample proof is brought. ...

The owners of 170 factories have handed power of attorney to the nation’s factories association ahead of a potential lawsuit directed at the leaders of six union groups. Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) secretary-general Ken Loo said yesterday that the factories would seek damages related ...

One year ago today, ex-Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith smiled as he sat before a judge at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh on the first day of his trial for shooting and badly injuring three unarmed garment workers at a protest in Prey Veng ...

Armed soldiers will continue to patrol Veng Sreng Street, the garment factory-lined thoroughfare in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district where military police shot dead five workers during a nationwide strike last month, until labor unrest in the garment sector subsides, the deputy commander of the ...

The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems ...

Three villagers in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district appeared in court yesterday after filing a complaint against a land concessionaire for illegally bulldozing community forest. The three represented more than 160 Phnong villagers in allegations that the provincial deputy governor’s company cleared 30 hectares of community forest ...

Garment workers’ calls for a $160 minimum wage are justified and should be honored, a new report by an international team of academics and labor experts has found. The authors—including a team from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, South Korean and ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday convicted and sentenced in absentia a senior official at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport for directing money from employees’ salaries to his own pocket. Seng Setha, 52, general director of the ministry’s administration and human resources department, was sentenced ...

The Phnom Penh governor on Tuesday told city officials to halt corruption and work harder to provide public services in an effort to restore confidence among the people who were so frustrated with the ruling party that they voted for the opposition CNRP in last ...

Over 100 families, who live in Kampong Chhnang, filed complaints against a provincial court judge and his group for allegedly threatening to shoot them in land disputes. The residents sued San Sophat, a judge at Kampong Chhnang Provincial Court, his bodyguard, and Hem Dara, a lawyer, ...

The Chinese-owned Union Development Group in Koh Kong province is bulldozing swaths of its land concession, originally intended for a massive tourist resort, to plant cassava and palm oil trees instead, a CNRP lawmaker-elect said Monday. Son Chhay, lawmaker-elect and CNRP chief whip, visited the area ...

When an ethnic Vietnamese crashed his motorcycle into an ethnic Khmer’s car in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district last Saturday night, he was attacked by Khmers shouting the racially charged term for Vietnamese — “yuon” — and beaten to death. That an ordinary traffic accident turned into ...

The Minority Rights Organization and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights on Friday condemned the racist mob killing of a 28-year-old ethnic Vietnamese man in Phnom Penh this week, which came after the destruction of Vietnamese shops last month and months of anti-Vietnamese rhetoric from ...

A coalition of 18 labor unions and associations is today set to begin the first phase of a nationwide labor strike in the garment sector by calling on workers in about 100 factories to boycott working overtime, according to union leaders. Despite efforts by the government ...

Every day, five people die in traffic accidents in Cambodia – a number the government is hoping to reduce with a new policy aimed at cutting traffic accidents by 50 per cent in 2020. The National Policy on Road Safety, passed by the Council of Ministers ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday said it would delay issuing a scheduled verdict against six people tried for intentional violence against police and property damage during an opposition protest on Phnom Penh’s Kbal Thnal overpass in September, saying that the case was very ...

The high-ranking government officials and global clothing brand representatives who took part in a meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday both raised concern​s​ about the media coverage of last month’s lethal repression of a nationwide strike by garment workers and its aftermath. The meeting was called ...

In anticipation of today’s scheduled Municipal Court verdict for six men facing charges of violence and property damage in connection with a September clash on Phnom Penh’s Kbal Thnal overpass, rights groups yesterday called for their acquittal. A statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) released yesterday ...

A man who intended to release birds at Freedom Park yesterday as a way of calling for those wrongfully imprisoned to be freed was himself detained on the way to the ceremony, rights group Adhoc said. The man, identified as Pheakdey, 35, was among nine people ...

The total number of serious and minor crimes in Cambodia increased by 1 percent, or 27 cases, in 2013 compared to the previous year, while Phnom Penh’s crime rate rose by 62 percent, a report released by the Interior Ministry on Tuesday says—laying the blame ...

A 41-year-old prisoner died of a heart attack in Prey Sar prison’s Correctional Center 1 on February 15, but only after he spent more than two hours stuck in his overcrowded cell waiting for medical treatment, his fellow prisoners allege. CC1 administrator Khuth Vuthy, who confirmed ...

Officials from the ministries of interior, social affairs, and justice met with NGOs on Friday to discuss the latest draft of a juvenile justice law that has been in the works for more than a decade and which would mean young offenders’ rights would be ...

Police and friends of Canadian journalist and screenwriter Dave Walker are searching for the Edmonton man after he mysteriously vanished on Feb. 14 in Cambodia. The 58-year-old left the Green Village Angkor Guesthouse in the tourist city of Siem Reap about 2 p.m. with only his ...

High-ranking government officials expounded on the detrimental effect political and labour demonstrations are having on Cambodia’s security during an annual meeting of police officials yesterday. In a speech to about 500 police in leadership positions, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said demonstrations, which have exploded since July’s ...