Judiciary and courts

Social media is on the rise in Cambodia, and it may just mark the beginning of the end of the systemic culture of judicial impunity, as well as the long-dysfunctional democratic system. ...

Cambodia must work to close the skills gap between its labor force and the domestic job market in order to maintain its economic growth, according to a report released on Monday by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labor Organization. ...

Authorities have detained five Chinese nationals for questioning following the brutal slaying of a Chinese woman at her apartment in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district on Sunday evening, police said on Monday. ...

A soldier arrested last week as a suspect in the recent murder of a police officer and a forest ranger in Preah Vihear province has started serving a 10-year prison sentence for a years-old armed robbery conviction. ...

Police in Tbong Khmum province on Friday shot one man dead and injured another—both suspects in a string of robberies—during a thwarted gun sale, an officer said. ...

Six men suspected of involvement in the weekend murder of a local police officer and a forest ranger in Preah Vihear province were charged Wednesday with illegal logging, while authorities continue to search for evidence linking them to the double homicide, a court official said. ...

A court complaint lodged by the vice president of charismatic radio station owner Mam Sonando’s political party seeking its eventual dissolution has been thrown out of court. ...

Authorities in Preah Vihear province on Tuesday arrested a local soldier on suspicion of being involved in the fatal shooting of a police officer and a Forestry Administration ranger on an overnight patrol for illegal loggers early Saturday morning. ...

Two workers from a garment factory in Kompong Speu province who were charged with a slew of crimes following their attempt last month to break away from the only union operating at their factory were released from jail on Friday, a court official and union ...

Police in Oddar Meanchey province are searching for three armed robbers who made off with about $30,000 in cash on Sunday after holding up a gas station and shooting the owner and her neighbor, a local official said Monday. ...

Minister of Environment Say Samal yesterday vowed that those responsible for the murder of two forest rangers shot dead while patrolling a protected forest near Preah Vihear temple Saturday morning will be brought to justice. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday that the soldiers who violently attacked two CNRP lawmakers last week were only reacting to racial insults, while Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said he would have “used a gun” against the lawmakers. ...

An opposition senator who has been jailed since August has lost an appeal to be released on bail. He will appeal the bail to the Supreme Court, he said. ...

One of two women claiming to represent 163 families that won access to a swath of land in Sen Sok district after a prolonged dispute failed Wednesday to have her breach of trust and forgery charges thrown out of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. ...

The Appeal Court on Wednesday rejected a second request by opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour to overturn a municipal court decision to deny him bail after he was arrested in August for presenting a fake border treaty in a video posted to Facebook. ...

Three of the men at a pro-CPP protest who beat CNRP lawmakers Nhay Chamroeun and Kong Saphea last week as they tried to leave the National Assembly turned themselves in Tuesday, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said. ...

About 400 parishioners at the Christian Evangelical International Ministry in Phnom Penh were singing hymns when 15 armed police officers rushed through the doors on Saturday and rounded up all of the Nigerian men present, according to Peter Ike, a preacher’s assistant at the church. ...

Four journalists who say they were chased by a machete-wielding man on Friday as they attempted to investigate reports of smuggling across the Chambok border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province filed a complaint with the provincial court yesterday accusing the man of attempted murder. ...

Police in Kompong Thom province arrested 11 people—eight who claimed to be journalists and three who said they were environmental NGO directors—on Sunday for extorting money from truck drivers transporting goods in Prasat Balaing district, officials said Monday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for a crackdown on gambling during a speech to mark the beginning of the new academic year in Kampot province. ...

A border official and a reporter gave drastically different accounts Sunday of events that transpired after a group of journalists was blocked as they attempted to visit the Chambok border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province on Friday. ...

Im Chanthy was seven months pregnant when her husband was killed three years ago, his body stuffed in the trunk of his Toyota Camry. ...

Cambodia’s former deputy consul-general to Ho Chi Minh City, who was arrested last year on suspicion of forging documents to allow luxury-grade wood to be exported into Vietnam, was sentenced to three years in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday. ...

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. ...