Judiciary and courts

Officials in Preah Sihanouk province last week moved to bar prominent Russian businessman Nikolai Doroshenko from selling Sihanoukville’s Victory Beach after the Appeal Court ruled that he had violated a contract to transfer the property to fugitive Russian oligarch Sergei Polonsky, court officials said Wednesday. ...

A report based on interviews with 54 children has exposed critical failings in Cambodia’s judicial system, recounting stories of unpleasant experiences in the presence of police, doctors and court rooms. UNICEF and Hagar, a child rights NGO based in Cambodia, released Wednesday “A System Just for ...

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that phones, iPads and other possessions confiscated from six opposition lawmakers during the violent July 15 protest at Freedom Park would not yet be returned. Presiding judge Yos Sokhoeun said that the items could not be returned based on the ...

The Court of Appeal on Monday upheld the protest-related convictions handed down to 11 activists in November, but reduced the prison sentences of all but the most high-profile members of the group. Seven of the defendants were arrested in mid-November for blocking traffic during a ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province were sent back to the drawing board yesterday, when the Court of Appeal upheld the provincial court’s decision that about 62 hectares of land belongs to Heng Huy Co. ...

On the 11th anniversary of labour leader Chea Vichea’s assassination yesterday, about 200 people attended a memorial service as many continued to call on authorities to find and arrest those responsible for Vichea’s 2004 murder. Opposition party leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, along with the ...

A Kampong Cham Provincial Court summons over a protest shocked a former local union president and his wife yesterday, since the event in question occurred more than a year ago and the union leader’s wife had no involvement in it. ...

An Appeal Court judge yesterday said that seven female Boeung Kak land activists imprisoned in November for protesting on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh were not actually blocking traffic at the time of their arrest. Eleven activists – the seven women arrested on November 10 and ...

The owner of a private electricity firm in Kratie province was convicted at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for paying $70,000 owed to a senior police officer and “land businessman” with a cheque that bounced. ...

As 10 land-rights activists and a monk prepare to take their appeal against one-year prison terms to the Appeal Court today, rights groups yesterday called for an end to government influence over the judiciary. “It’s time for Cambodia’s courts to act professionally and independently from the ...

A day after the Appeal Court denied bail to the parents of fugitive defense ministry official Thong Sarath, municipal police and court officials Wednesday searched three residences belonging to the family and seized three AK-47 rifles at one of the homes.​ ...

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday denied bail for the parents of a senior Ministry of Defense official who remains on the run over allegations that he orchestrated the assassination of a wealthy businessman in November. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged Major General Thong Sarath ...

King Norodom Sihamoni yesterday shook up the composition of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, officially instituting seven new members to the body overseeing the nation’s judiciary, while also disbarring one former prosecutor.​ ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday accused the CNRP of violating the “culture of dialogue” that he and the opposition agreed to last year, and warned seven lawmakers charged with incitement and insurrection that their parliamentary immunity would not save them from prison. The seven CNRP ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday denied bail to the former common-law wife of one of Cambodia’s richest men, who was extradited from Thailand on Tuesday over her alleged involvement in a plot to rape and murder Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol’s wife and daughter. Lay ...

Despite pledging to deposit $2,500 and surrender his passport, Cambodian-American opposition official Meach Sovannara was yesterday denied bail for a fourth time, and for the second time at the Appeal Court​. ...

Human rights group Adhoc has demanded the release of a couple and their 9-month-old child jailed amid a land dispute in Preah Vihear, calling their arrest a “grave human rights abuse”. ...

Seven ethnic Bunong villagers in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province have been summoned by the provincial court for questioning after the company accused them of illegally occupying its land in Keo Seima district. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday convicted self-exiled dissident Sourn Serey Ratha of incitement, plotting and obstructing elections, while three alleged co-conspirators were also convicted of plotting and obstructing elections. The four were sentenced to between five and seven years in jail for the charges, ...

The trial of two Chinese men and three Cambodian women on charges of human trafficking began in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday after they were arrested in May for allegedly brokering marriages between Cambodian women and prospective grooms in China. ...

Seven Cambodian loggers have been released from a Thai prison a year after they were caught crossing the border in search of rosewood. ...

Former Cambodian Prime Min­ister Pen Sovann, who was installed by the Vietnamese after they toppled the Khmer Rouge, but was later removed and imprisoned in Vietnam, has announced a plan to file a complaint against Cambodia’s eastern neighbor at the International Criminal Court. ...

Lawyers for 11 opposition CNRP activists facing insurrection charges Thursday walked out of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in protest after the judges refused to let three CNRP lawmakers facing the same charges observe what was supposed to be the first full day of hearings. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned activist monk Keo Somaly, for questioning over an alleged attack on a fellow monk at the city’s Wat Neakavorn last month. ...