Judiciary and courts

At least nine police checkpoints on the major entry points into Phnom Penh have been set up ahead of today’s trial of acting CNRP president Kem Sokha, with the opposition claiming supporters were being hindered from attending a party rally. ...

Four Boeung Kak lake activists, including recently jailed community leader Tep Vanny, will face trial next month for a five-year-old case of insulting and obstructing public officials during a 2011 protest at City Hall. ...

A letter sent to authorities in Siem Reap province on Monday by nine park rangers accusing two senior environment officials of involvement in illegally cutting down six trees for profit was dismissed as a lie by one of the accused yesterday, who instead insisted it ...

The Rattanakiri provincial court will hear a case against provincial officials brought by rights group Adhoc on Wednesday, which accuses them of failing to prevent illegal logging in Lumphat district. ...

Only a few days after the Koh Kong Provincial Court found three environmental activists guilty for protesting against a sand dredging company, the Ministry of Energy and Mines has called for greater civilian participation in protecting The Kingdom’s natural resources. ...

Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana has never interfered in a judicial decision, he said during a speech in front of a half-vacant National Assembly yesterday. ...

An Interior Ministry official who fatally shot a Phnom Penh village chief, his son and grandson during a bloodbath provoked by a petty financial dispute pleaded self-defense during his trial on Wednesday.   ...

An official at the Council for the Development of Cambodia was charged with bribery over the weekend after being arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), just weeks after the graft-fighting body arrested a Foreign Affairs Ministry official and the ambassador to South Korea.   ...

The Justice Ministry on Thursday rejected the opposition CNRP’s argument for refusing to be questioned by prosecutors over party Vice President Kem Sokha’s sex scandal, calling its claims of unconstitutional behavior “slander.” ...

The European Union (EU) has called on the government to release the Adhoc, National Election Committee and United Nations officials who have been charged and imprisoned over the sex scandal involving acting opposition party president Kem Sokha. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who is living in France to avoid prison time, will be tried over allegations of defaming National Assembly President Heng Samrin starting July 28, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court has announced.   ...

Rights group Adhoc has no plans to file a complaint against Khom Chandaraty, the alleged mistress of acting opposition president Kem Sokha, despite her accusing various members of encouraging her to give false testimony during police questioning earlier this month. ...

Police will investigate a number of NGO workers who government officials say were involved in the false testimony of Khom Chandaraty, the alleged mistress of opposition acting president Khem Sokha, after Ms. Chandaraty published an open letter accusing the officials of encouraging her to lie ...

Labor Ministry officials have filed a complaint to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court accusing four union officials of public defamation, insulting public officers and blocking public roads. ...

The Stung Treng Provincial Court on Monday charged a goldsmith, three security guards and the manager of a market in Stung Treng City for negligence that contributed to the outbreak of a fire that gutted the market on Thursday, causing an estimated $1 million in ...

Imprisoned CNRP official Meach Sovannara has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet, and the Cambodian government, accusing them of “terrorism” and “torture through arbitrary, extra-legal, and long-term detention.” ...

Demolishing the constitutional protection forbidding the arrest of lawmakers without National Assembly consent, police apprehended opposition lawmaker Um Sam An early Monday morning in Siem Reap City over his advocacy against Vietnamese border intrusions. ...

A two-star general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) will be questioned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today for allegedly making defamatory remarks about a superior officer’s wife relating to land seizures in Siem Reap province, according to court officials. ...

Former Capitol Tours bus driver Nan Vanna and labor activist Ros Siphay were released on bail Wednesday, nearly two months after they were arrested for taking part in a demonstration against the company during which protesters were attacked by a mob of angry tuk-tuk drivers. ...

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. ...

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. ...

Two village representatives in Kampong Speu who were detained for protesting against the actions of their provincial authority were released yesterday by the provincial court after Prime Minister Hun Sen sent two of his sons to help deal with the situation. ...

About 65 villagers from Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Srouch district handed out petitions yesterday urging the National Assembly to push the provincial court into releasing two of their leaders.​ ...

Although they remain publicly unnamed, nine businessmen in the timber industry were summoned to appear at the Tbong Khmum provincial court today for alleged deforestation crimes and illegal business dealings, according to officials. ...