Legal framework

After exposure in the press and a brush with military police, a protest leader has fled rural Kampot for Siem Reap province. ...

Authorities in Sihanoukville have ordered 26 vendors on O’chheuteal Beach to move their stalls away from the popular stretch of sand by Saturday next week in the interest of “aesthetic beauty” or face eviction. ...

Yem Ponhearith, chairman of the National Assembly’s commission on religious affairs, culture and tourism, on Thursday told a workshop that arrivals of “anarchic religious tourists” from Vietnam are harming Cambodia’s religious harmony. ...

Human Rights Watch on Thursday added its voice to the criticism of Cambodia’s judiciary for defamation charges brought against Ny Chakyra, a senior human rights advocate who accused two judicial officials in Siem Reap province of misconduct in their handling of a land dispute. ...

Police in Mondolkiri province arrested seven men Thursday for transporting what was originally suspected to be more than 6.5 tons of TNT, but later determined to be a powder used for purifying gold, officials said. ...

Police in Sihanoukville on Thursday arrested a 61-year-old Russian man they deemed a danger to the public after hearing of his erratic behavior and discovering his collection of knives, a police official said. ...

A soldier and two civilians were charged on Wednesday with illegally clearing forest land by the Kompong Thom Provincial Court, while a second soldier who allegedly guarded the illicit operation has been charged with illegal weapons possession, a court official said Thursday. ...

A street seller who beat a Thai tourist to death with a pole outside a restaurant in Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City on Tuesday night was charged with murder by the provincial court on Wednesday, officials said Thursday. ...

An international arrest warrant has finally been issued for Chhouk Bundith, the former governor of Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City who went into hiding before being found guilty of shooting three garment workers three years ago, according to National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday delayed a verdict in the $1-million fraud case brought by a Phnom Penh dentist against Cambodian-American businessman Richer San and three of his associates, saying further investigation is needed. ...

The Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia on Tuesday wrote to local rights group Adhoc accusing its head of monitoring, Ny Chakrya, of flouting legal practice by ordering the NGO’s lawyers to hand over for examination all documents relating to cases they defend. ...

Concerned Koh Kong residents, joined by environmental activists from the campaign group Mother Nature, began an ambitious protest last weekend in the province’s Andong Teuk commune. ...

Implementation of the new Land Traffic Law that was passed in December will officially begin on January 1, an official said Monday, with police focusing on the leading causes of traffic accidents, starting with speeding. ...

A Cambodian man was left dead after a group of fishermen from Kampot province clashed with Vietnamese fishermen while at sea on Sunday evening, according to officials. ...

Opposition lawmaker Um Sam An has been suspended from the next 15 sessions of parliament and will have his salary cut as punishment for critical comments he posted to Facebook earlier this month, according to a statement issued Friday by the National Assembly’s Sec­retariat General. ...

An NGO director claimed Sunday that authorities in Svay Rieng province blocked a group he was leading from visiting homes they had rebuilt near the Vietnamese border in Romeas Hek district. ...

Authorities in Phnom Penh on Sunday arrested and released six people dressed in prison uniforms and chained together by their legs for protesting outside the National Assembly against a recently approved law that threatens to muzzle NGOs critical of the government ...

Two women were charged with extortion and placed in Kandal Provincial Prison on Wednesday for accepting $4,500 from the factory where they worked and had recently set up a union, a court official said. ...

A former two-star military general who confessed to murdering his wife and daughter, stuffing their bodies in a cooler and having two relatives dump them in the forest was sentenced to life in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday. ...

A district police chief in Kompong Chhnang province was on Thursday suspended amid an investigation into claims that he raped a high-school student in his office before threatening to murder her family if she told anyone about the assault. ...

An angry mob of hundreds surrounded a police station in Takeo province for nine hours on Wednesday night and demanded that an alleged organ harvester accused of kidnapping a 6-year-old girl be handed over for summary execution, officials said Thursday. ...

This month’s early release of convicted French pedophile Philipe Broaly – despite ongoing court appeals – is an insult to victims and a huge step backwards for child protection in Cambodia, multiple NGOs have warned.  ...

The former chief of police in Kandal province’s Takhmao City on Wednesday confessed that he had become a drug dealer after he was arrested on Tuesday in possession of 13 small packages of crystal methamphetamine, officials said. ...

Hundreds of people gathered in provinces around the country Wednesday to demonstrate against a pending NGO law that opponents fear will be used to muzzle groups that criticize the ruling CPP. ...