Law and judiciary

The ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) has postponed a two-day meeting with telecom firms to discuss a controversial draft law leaked to the Post last week, which details the government’s plan to assert control over the industry. A representative from one telecommunications provider who wished ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday concluded the trial of two former employees of Canadia Bank and two alleged accomplices charged in October with embezzling more than $2 million from fraudulent credit card accounts. Presiding Judge Kor Vandy heard closing arguments in the case—believed to ...

A “shadow cabinet” will be created inside the National Assembly once the CNRP’s lawmakers-elect swear into office, senior opposition party officials said Thursday, in a move that nine years ago saw an opposition lawmaker imprisoned on charges of inciting a rebellion. Prime Minister Hun Sen and ...

Cambodia’s telecom sector is outraged over a draft law handed down by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) on Wednesday, which details a government plan to assert control over the industry. In what is being labeled an “unprecedented, draconian” effort to nationalise the industry, the ...

Police and court officials on Wednesday searched the home of villager Oum Sophy, who has been outspoken opponent of the well-connected KDC company as it has tried to push her and dozens of her neighbors off their land in Kompong Chhnang province. The raid came after ...

Economic crimes police on Wednesday arrested a woman and seized 3 tons of low-quality fishballs, claiming she had illegally imported the potentially dangerous meat. Kandal province resident Chan Thea, 37, was stopped in Phnom Penh while en route to Battambang—where police believe she was planning to ...

After months of decrying the one-party National Assembly as illegitimate and vowing to amend any flawed legislation passed during a parliamentary boycott, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, by agreeing to take its seats yesterday, is about to get its chance. In the roughly 10-month period since ...

The Kandal Provincial Court on Tuesday tried two opposition CNRP officials and their lawyer—two of them in absentia—over a case dating back to 2011 that was abruptly scheduled a week ago. Chan Cheng, who was elected last year as a CNRP National Assembly member from Kandal ...

Two villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the well-connected KDC company were charged Tuesday with intentional destruction of property and causing injuries during clashes with workers at the disputed development site in Kompong Chhnang province last week. On Monday, provincial police arrested 30-year-old Mang ...

A jubilant crowd of opposition supporters burst into cheers yesterday afternoon as seven Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers-elect and one party activist were released on bail just hours after an announced rapprochement between the CNRP and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. They walked free through exits ...

A Cambodian court on Tuesday afternoon released seven opposition party lawmakers-elect and one party activist on bail after the ruling and opposition parties reached a political agreement. “The eight politicians were released from Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison at 4:45 p.m. after questioning judge Keo Mony ...

A newspaper editor and a suspected illegal logger have been arrested over the shooting of a senior forestry official in Mondolkiri province earlier this month, according to police. Pum Poeun, the 48-year-old editor-in-chief of Borei Angkor newspaper, was arrested in Phnom Penh on Sunday. Len Kamry, ...

Forest activists accused of destroying private property told a court hearing in Kampong Thom province yesterday that they were acting to protect mainland Southeast Asia’s largest evergreen forest from illegal logging. ...

Despite multiple requests, the US Embassy has not been given access to visit dual citizen Mu Sochua since her arrest last Tuesday, officials said yesterday. “Consular officers attempted to visit Mu Sochua the evening she was arrested but were not permitted to see her and multiple ...

After more than half a year with only one acid attack recorded in Cambodia, police in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town are at a loss to explain an incident yesterday in which three women were allegedly doused with the chemical while eating noodles at a local ...

Three reporters and a publisher were arrested in two separate cases of attempted extortion in Stung Treng and Kratie provinces on Sunday after stopping vehicles suspected of carrying illegally logged timber, according to local authorities. Mom Mon, 54, and Kim Noeun, 28, reporters for the Sangkum Khmer and ...

About 200 people from Ponhea Leu district protested outside the Kandal provincial court Monday as questioning began of residents summoned last month in an ongoing land dispute. The court summoned 12 villagers on June 30, shortly after Phanimex Development company filed a complaint against the families, ...

The 23-year-old son of the director of rural development in Pailin province is under investigation by police after photos of the young man hunting protected wildlife went viral on social media, police said Monday. Soeu Longdy, deputy Tuol Lvea commune police chief, said his officers questioned ...

Nine environmental activists on trial for the destruction of private property in Kompong Thom province denied allegations in court Monday that they ravaged a local farmer’s cassava field in 2011. The nine members of the Prey Long People’s Network, a group of activists dedicated to protecting ...

When authorities in Kampong Chhnang province on Friday encountered and pursued the boat of alleged illegal fisherman Chieb Ou, they couldn’t have expected to find themselves being chased instead. But that’s precisely what happened when, rather than surrendering, the 42-year-old suspect turned his boat towards the ...

Police in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district took part in a sting target took part in a sting targeting illegal computer gaming locations yesterday, arresting seven people and seizing 71 illicit machines across three locations in Phsar Thmey III village. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has rejected a request from two former members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU) to have the union’s president be forced to step down as he is investigated for embezzlement. Former CCAWDU officials Oum Visal and Roeun ...

Cambodia’s cybercrime law was leaked earlier this year. Cambodian officials have denied the existence of such a draft law, but local and international rights group have criticized the secret draft process, as well as some stipulations that might affect freedom of speech online. VOA Khmer ...

Nearly a month after Cambodia’s second universal periodic review (UPR) of its human rights situation at the U.N. in Geneva, rights groups met in Phnom Penh on Thursday to discuss how they can work with the government to ensure that the 163 recommendations it accepted ...