Judiciary and courts

Despite a massive 300 percent increase in its budget next year to prepare for looming elections, the National Election Committee (NEC) says it has barely half the money it needs to do its job and is looking for overseas aid for resources to help. ...

A British man detained for more than two years in Prey Sar prison on charges of massive fraud has been accused of obstructing his own trial after one of his lawyers dropped the case. In an email yesterday, defendant Greg Fryett pushed back against these ...

The high-profile trial of a British entrepreneur charged with fraud was postponed Wednesday after his lawyer cited a conflict of interest and withdrew from the long-running case, two days after a member of the European Parliament used the case to highlight “systematic problems” in Cambodia’s ...

A British pedophile who was arrested at the behest of the British Embassy two weeks ago was deported Wednesday evening, an immigration official said Wednesday. ...

The wife of an army general and an Information Ministry official were convicted of defamation by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday over Facebook posts accusing the general of having an affair with CPP Senator Keo Maly, a claim the lawmaker has denied. ...

A few dozen of the staunchest activists from the evicted Boeng Kak, Borei Keila and SOS communities Monday announced that they had began a campaign of daily protests that will last for the next month to call attention to their ongoing land settlement grievances. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Sunday warned CNRP President Sam Rainsy that he could be prosecuted over the same forgery and incitement case that led to the arrest of opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour in August. ...

Demonstrations surrounding the establishment of a new union at a garment factory in Kompong Speu province ended Monday after management dropped their complaint against two jailed workers in exchange for protesters agreeing to return to their jobs, a court official and unionists said. ...

Ly Sothea, the director of the National Institute of Business (NIB) at the center of a scandal involving more than $30,000 that was withheld from teachers, was transferred from his position Monday to a new job at the Labor Ministry, though an Education Ministry official ...

More than 20 HIV-infected villagers provided testimony during the third day of the trial of an unlicensed medic—accused of infecting more than 270 people with the virus—at the Battambang Provincial Court on Thursday, a court official said. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday heard the case of a businessman who was charged with fraud after he acquired the office of the municipal women’s affairs department in a 2012 land swap, but failed to hand over the property to a tycoon to whom ...

Pheng Vannak, an Interior Ministry officer accused of making a death threat against CNRP Deputy President Kem Sokha, has been removed from his position and will face trial over defamation allegations, the ministry’s spokesman said Wednesday. ...

Two garment workers who broke away from the only union operating at their factory in Kompong Speu province in an attempt to provide workers an alternate choice for representation were charged Wednesday with a slew of crimes and are being held in provisional detention, officials ...

Angry at a new Facebook post by an opposition party spokesman and another CNRP lawmaker’s mention of the 1980s government’s deadly “K5 Plan,” Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday used the floor of the National Assembly to warn opposition lawmakers to be more civil. ...

Twenty-nine loggers were sent back to Cambodia from Thailand on Sunday after the group was arrested by Thai soldiers while logging rosewood across the border from Banteay Meanchey province, an official said Monday. ...

A representative of 18 vendors in Sihanoukville asked the government for help in reviving the area where they used to live and work, claiming that the half-finished construction sites destroyed the area and any businesses operating there.  ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued an appeal for government officials to strengthen cooperation to prevent and combat the rampant smuggling of goods in and out of the country, causing the loss of much-needed tax revenue.   ...

Oddar Meanchey provincial police chief Men Ly said yesterday he will launch an investigation into the burning of an opposition CNRP sign during a protest in Samraong City on Friday led by a defector to the ruling CPP. ...

The trial of an unlicensed medic who was charged with murder af­ter allegedly infecting more than 270 people with HIV will begin on Tuesday, a court official said on Fri­day. ...

An Information Ministry official has been charged with defamation over a Facebook post accusing a CPP senator of being the mistress of a military general, and has been summoned to trial on Monday. ...

Police in Svay Rieng province said Wednesday that they were still searching for one of two men suspected in a violent attack on an elderly commune chief that stemmed from a drunken fight on Saturday. ...

The Geneva-based Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has appealed to the public to urge Cambodian authorities to end their “judicial harassment” of prominent human rights advocate Ny Chakrya, who stands charged with public defamation and attempting to coerce court officials. ...

Philippe Broaly, the former French judge and child-protection NGO director who was convicted in May for sexually assaulting boys in his care, had his sentence extended to three years by the Appeal Court on Friday, according to anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE). ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday acquitted a land broker of allegedly defrauding a businessman out of $2.5 million over a 9,000-hectare economic land concession (ELC) in Mondolkiri province that was eventually revoked by the government. ...