Legal and judicial system

King Norodom Sihamoni signed the NGO law on Wednesday, according to a government official, bringing into effect a piece of legislation that has been internationally rebuked as a serious threat to free speech and association. ...

Responding to criticism of the eighteen-month jail terms handed down to four unionists who blocked a road at a strike in Svay Rieng province last year, a deputy prosecutor said Wednesday that their actions were as severe as those of former Bavet City governor Chhouk ...

Authorities in Mondolkiri province arrested three men Wednesday morning after discovering nearly 150 kg of illegal bushmeat in the vehicle they were driving, a forestry official said. ...

The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Tuesday questioned a district police chief over allegations that he raped a high school student in his office last month but did not charge the official, who has been suspended pending investigations by the court and National Police. ...

A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said Tuesday that the government was considering a request made by the new Thai ambassador to repatriate seven of the country’s nationals serving prison sentences in Cambodia. ...

The country’s anti-corruption czar on Tuesday said the former director of the National Malaria Center must pay back the $351,000 in bribes he took in exchange for mosquito net contracts—effectively admitting the ex-director’s guilt—but that he would not be prosecuted. ...

Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana on Monday presided over the swearing-in of 55 recent graduates of the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions as judges and prosecutors at the Royal Palace’s throne hall in Phnom Penh. ...

Police from Takeo province came under fire in neighboring Kampot province early Sunday morning as they pursued a truck transporting a load of luxury wood while four other cars tried to protect the truck carrying the timber, according to officials, who said police managed to ...

The Pursat Provincial Court on Monday charged a border police official with intentional violence for cutting off his colleague’s fingers with a cleaver at their barracks on Friday night, officials said. ...

The head of the Forestry Administration’s Mondolkiri cantonment said Monday that he had accused one man over an August 1 incident in which military police freed the drivers of four trucks transporting illegally logged timber from the custody of anti-economic crime police and escaped with ...

The relatives and neighbors of two sisters who were arrested in Phnom Penh last week over the alleged sexual enslavement of their 13-year-old niece are angry. Members of the mostly Cham Muslim community living along the Tonle Sap river in Russei Keo district’s Chraing Chamreh ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court on Saturday charged the son-in-law of the provincial prison director with intentional violence and “public insult” for allegedly punching a traffic police officer last week and then threatening to run her over with his car, officials said Sunday. ...

Police in Kratie province say they are searching for the driver of a truck who had been transporting illegally logged timber through Snuol district early Saturday morning when it overturned and burst into flames. ...

Police in Phnom Penh are searching for the driver of an abandoned and empty container truck, which was found in Russei Keo district on Sunday morning and was scheduled to deliver a shipment of garments to a dry port in Pur Senchey district, officials said. ...

A drug dealer who found himself at the center of a high-profile corruption scandal when it emerged that his SUV has been gifted to the son of ousted Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealak­tei was convicted on Friday, but the court said his car ...

The lawyer for Duong Udomchorvin, who slapped the son of logging tycoon Try Pheap in a Phnom Penh tattoo parlor in April, told a hearing at the municipal court Thursday that his obese client’s poor health should be taken into account in sentencing. ...

The deputy Phnom Penh police chief in charge of immigration has denied accusations of overseeing a network of corrupt officers who regularly extorted foreigners running businesses in the city, according to a statement released by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Thursday. ...

Three more opposition activists were charged with “joining an insurrection” Wednesday for taking part in a CNRP-led protest that turned violent last year, with two being sent to Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison and a third detained overnight at municipal police headquarters. ...

Rights group Adhoc recorded 131 rape cases in the first six months of the year, compared to 80 cases in 2014—a nearly 64 percent increase—due to the influence of “uncontrolled foreign cultures” such as pornography, according to a report released by the NGO on Wednesday. ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court decided to detain two activists of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in prison after finishing the questioning process. ...

A Cambodian court on Wednesday charged three activists from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party with insurrection in connection with a protest last year that turned violent. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged an employee of the Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia over the theft of $1.6 million from the firm, a police official said. ...

Authorities in Phnom Penh on Tuesday arrested another protester who took part in a demonstration at Freedom Park on July 15 last year that turned violent and has since been deemed an insurrection, City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said last night. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday laid charges against two former monks who were arrested in Pur Senchey district on Saturday for possession of drugs, fake documents and weapons, but the duo maintains that they were framed in retaliation for their political activism. ...