Legal and judicial system

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 ...

After being found guilty yesterday, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court handed four men prison sentences and fines for their involvement in a smuggling ring, which brought more than two and a half tonnes of illegal cold medicine into the Kingdom from South Korea. Both men ...

The court prosecutor investigating last month’s shooting of three female factory workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) denied a newspaper report claiming the chief suspect, former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith, had confessed to shooting the women. Svay Rieng Provincial Court prosecutor Hing Bunchea said ...

Despite admitting yesterday to firing his pistol during last month’s protest at a Svay Rieng province special economic zone (SEZ), where three women were shot, Bavet City’s former governor Chhuk Bundith was free to return home after making his confession to the court. “[Mr. Bundith] came ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday tried a Vietnamese-Canadian national, four Cambodians and a Vietnamese national, the latter in absentia, for their roles in smuggling about 3 kg of drug precursor chemicals from India to Cambodia using the FedEx shipping service. ...

Four former workers at the Angkor Villa Hotel and Resort appeared in the Appeal Court yesterday for questioning in relation to allegations that they ransacked the hotel during a strike last year. Korng Kimlean, union president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers’ Federation and the ...

Two female garment workers who were shot last month during a protest at a Svay Rieng province special economic zone (SEZ) filed a complaint with the provincial court yesterday accusing former deputy Bavet City Governor Chhuk Bundith of attempted murder. Bun Chenda, 21, and Nuth Sokhorn, ...

About 50 Borei Keila evictees gathered outside Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday to again pressure officials to lay criminal charges against Suy Sophan, the owner of development firm Phan Imex, for destroying their homes and breaching an agreement to build them new ones. The former Borei ...

The Court of Appeal yesterday reduced the sentence of the former deputy director general of Anco Groups and his wife to three years imprisonment each. In December, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced the couple to four-and-a-half years each for embezzling nearly $60 million dollars from ...

This past Sunday afternoon, while the rest of Phnom Penh’s residents hid from the sweltering heat, a steady stream of cars and motos made their way down a long accces road, flanked by green lawn and tennis courts. Alighting at the Sofitel Phokeetra on the Tonle ...