Law and judiciary

The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has dismissed two complaints submitted by two local human rights groups, Adhoc and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), against local officials who they alleged had de­famed and intimidated their staff, court officials said Friday. Adhoc filed a complaint against Pheng ...

The Phnom Penh municipal government will today issue announcements to two property developers ordering them to partially demolish buildings near the Royal Palace in order to reduce their height to comply with the original planning agreements, an official said. The two buildings—one owned by Vattanac Properties ...

More than a dozen journalism and hu­man rights groups have called on Cambodia’s political forces to protect journalists and guarantee citizens’ access to an open and unobstructed press during the current political unrest. In a statement released Wednesday, the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, along with ...

Kneeling outside a motodop and car battery store on Monivong Boulevard in the capital, a 15-year-old boy spends his days piping acid into batteries with his bare hands. His employer says she has no idea that Cambodia, as well as having an Acid Control Law – ...

Eight-year-old Sokun* spent almost the first seven years of his life in prison. Unlike other Cambodian children who have the freedom to play and run free, countless hours of his early life were spent in a hot, squalid and teeming cell in the prison where his ...

More than 300 youth from around Cambodia plan to rally on Friday to demand justice for the man killed during the opposition party’s three-day demonstration last month. Participants from a variety of universities, high schools, youth clubs, civil societies and other groups will march from Wat ...

Suspects on trial already detained by authorities will now be forced to wear a prison uniform to court, a director at the General Department of Prisons at the Ministry of Interior said yesterday. About 7,000 of the new uniforms will be distributed to prisons nationwide, he ...

Hung Hiep (Cambodia) Co., the only company in Cambodia licensed to import Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles, said Monday it would no longer make repairs to new lines of Mercedes vehicles that are smuggled into the country. Company officials said the move is to reduce scams and repair ...

About 50 ethnic Jarai families in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district have sold their farmland and part of the forests their culture depends on to the sister of former Finance Minister Keat Chhon, rights group Adhoc said Monday. Last year, the ethnic minority Jarai in the district ...

Conditions are deteriorating for hundreds of inmates that were forced by flooding to move to the already overcrowded Battambang and Siem Reap prisons from Banteay Meanchey prison, and human rights groups are not sure how long it will be before the prison is operational again, ...

Dozens of anti-eviction activists on Monday held a rally in Phnom Penh and submitted a petition to the Ministry of Interior, demanding the arrests of Daun Penh district officials they claim conspired to viciously attack them during a peaceful protest at Wat Phnom last month. On ...

The case of journalist Hang Serei Odom, who was found hacked to death and stuffed into the trunk of his Toyota Camry in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Chum district on September 11 last year, will be heard by the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh, a senior court ...

A man apprehended by participants at a rally in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday after he was spotted carrying a concealed pistol, signed himself into Calmette Hospital by listing his occupation as “Samdech Bodyguard,” in apparent reference to one of the three leaders of ...

In a letter sent to the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training last week, the Council of Ministers encourages the ministry to facilitate talks between garment factory management and the union representing thousands of workers on strike for nearly two months. The letter, written by Council ...

Another alleged member of the gang suspected of being responsible for last month’s shootings of a Japanese tourist and an American expatriate was arrested following a shoot-out on Saturday. Sok Hok, 28, was apprehended in the capital’s Prampi Makara district. ...

A small gathering to mark World Teachers’ Day at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park briefly descended into chaos Sunday when a crowd of rally-goers wrested a concealed gun from a man working for the Ministry of Information after he forced his way to the front of ...

Developing the Don Sahong dam on the Hou Sahong channel of the Mekong River in Champassak province does not breach the 1995 Mekong Agreement, a senior government official has told local media. Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr Viraphonh Viravong, made the comment on Thursday, ...

An increasing number of Cambodians have access to the Internet due to ownership of smartphones, tablets and the expansion of wireless broadband to rural areas of Cambodia, but access does not mean freedom from restrictions, according to a new report by New York-based Freedom House. In ...

Ruling party lawmakers yesterday unanimously voted to fill each of the National Assembly’s nine commissions with their own members. The vote was made without the presence of the opposition, which has been boycotting parliament since its opening late last month. Among the five Cambodian People’s Party members ...

Floods have submerged a prison in northwestern Banteay Meanchey province on Thursday, forcing the authorities to evacuate all 842 prisoners to detention centers in other provinces. “The prison is badly inundated and we are moving the prisoners to prisons in neighboring provinces,” Phin Sophal, chief of ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday released four of the six men who were charged with assault following violent clashes between security forces, protesters and angry commuters in Phnom Penh last month, and intends to release the remaining two men today, a rights worker ...

Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief Om Yentieng on Wednesday told donor countries to keep their noses out of how the institution goes about its work while at the same time informing the public that he was powerless to stop the courts from dropping corruption cases. In a ...

Three thousand riot police officers yesterday received certificates of appreciation for their post-election work, which included “controlling the escalation” at the Kbal Thnal overpass last month, where one man was killed and at least nine injured by police who fired live ammunition at unarmed rioters. Interior ...

Eight unionists charged with incitement after a strike at Kampong Speu province’s Sabrina Garment factory will remain in custody after the Supreme Court yesterday denied their request for bail. Presiding Judge Cheum Rithy yesterday said the court is nearly finished questioning witnesses, and that the ...