Judiciary and courts

Villagers in Kompong Chnang province have resorted to black magic as a means to even the odds with a long-running land dispute with a powerful company, KDC Development, holding a spell-casing ceremony on Saturday to curse the firm and the provincial court for allegedly colluding ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court has issued summonses to question three women who were allegedly shot by a government official during a protest at a special economic zone (SEZ) in February, a court official and the plaintiffs said yesterday. About 20 eyewitnesses have already been questioned ...

For the second time, court officials want to question three female workers who say they were shot and wounded by former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith at a labour protest earlier this year. The second summons, which has outraged the women, stems from a complaint that ...

Chased out of the house by her Malaysian employer, fresh-faced Tieng SaSa, 18, found shelter with an NGO, escaping alleged abuse at the hands of her employer that included binding her hands and beating her feet with a metal club until her bones broke. Three months ...

Two journalists who were present when environmental activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana were killed last month have reportedly been summonsed to Koh Kong provincial court. Neang Boratino, Koh Kong provincial co-ordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said court sources had told him ...

Six Boeung Kak village representatives will appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused of threatening to kill their one-time representative Ly Mom, who was spoke on their behalf from 2007 until last year. Although no charges have been laid, Ly Mom is demanding $10,000 from each ...

The director and employees of a maid recruitment agency were handed sentences of up to five years by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday and ordered to pay compensation for illegally detaining an under-aged girl. Presiding judge Duch Kimsorn said Century Manpower’s director Oung Sakirin, chief of administration ...

About 20 former residents for the Borei Keila community protested outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday after a judge delayed a hearing regarding their land dispute with the powerful Phanimex company, a lawyer for the residents said. The residents filed a complaint against Phanimex ...

German sportswear brand Puma is seeking information on why the Svay Rieng Provincial Court decided to charge former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith with causing unintentional injuries, a Puma representative said yesterday. Mr Bundith is the sole suspect in a shooting in Bavet City on February ...

No mistake was made when former Anco Brothers executive Heng Chheang and his wife, Tep Kolap, were arrested last year, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. Pin Vannak, a defence lawyer for the couple, had argued they had been arrested illegally because the Phnom Penh municipal court ...

The Kampong Chhnang provincial court yesterday ordered the KDC company to produce proof of ownership for 105 land titles in the Kampong Tralach district, the subject of a land dispute that dates back to 2007. ...

One of three women shot during a protest outside the Kaoway Sports factory in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town on February 20 accused deposed town governor Chhouk Bandith of the crime yesterday, but told a judge she hadn’t been sure until seeing a media report ...

About 150 villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute with CPP Senator and tycoon Ly Yong Phat protested peacefully outside the Kompong Speu Provincial Court yesterday as five villagers were questioned over accusations that they are illegally occupying the senator’s land. The villagers, from Thpong district’s ...

More than 500 villagers involved in a land dispute with a private firm in Kratie province will protest outside the provincial court today to demand that a villager representative arrested Friday be released on bail. ...

The future of a 1,000-year-old Khmer statue—which Sotheby’s auction house in New York was ordered by the US government on Wednesday to hand back to Cambodia—is now in the hands of the US courts. The statue of the guardian Duryodhana is believed to have come from ...

A teenager was one of 13 girls locked inside a recruitment company’s offices in the capital last year after being promised work as a maid in Malaysia, she told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. The court yesterday tried three people over alleged illegal detention and human ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court yesterday questioned two of the three female garment factory workers who were shot during a protest at a special economic zone (SEZ) in Bavet City in February, the provincial prosecutor said yesterday. Keo Nea, 18; Bun Chenda, 21; and Nuth Sokhorn, ...

The three young women wounded in last month’s factory shooting in Svay Rieng province will meet with provincial prosecutor Hing Bunchea today to give their account of the February 20 incident that has yet to produce an arrest warrant. Bun Chinda, 21, Nuth Sokhorn, 23, and ...

A total of 36 protests involving economic land concessions ended with violent intervention from armed authorities last year, according to data released this week by local rights group Adhoc. More than a fifth of the cases involved the long-simmering Boeng Kak lake evictions, in which ...

The morning before the verdict was handed down at the Appeals Court on March 12, the mood among those working on the defence team for Heng Chheang and his wife Tep Kolap was almost optimistic. They, along with relatives of the couple and academics from Phnom ...

An estimated 73 suspects and convicts involved in illegal fishing were released on bail in accordance with a blanket amnesty granted by Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this month, a court official said yesterday. Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the Ministry of Justice’s annual ...

Opening statements started yesterday in a trial pitting Kompong Chhnang province villagers against the wife of Minister of Industry Suy Sem over a long-standing land dispute. However, the plaintiffs and human rights workers monitoring the trial criticized yesterday’s proceedings, which were allowed to proceed despite ...

A government lawyer has written to the Phnom Penh municipal court to again ask it to allow land belonging to fugitive former Cambodian ambassador to Brunei Nan Sy to be sold at auction. ...

The first trial in a long-running land dispute with the wife of Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem will start today at the Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court, a human rights worker and court officer said yesterday. Court prosecutor Penh Vibol confirmed that the court would ...