Law and judiciary
First CPP National Assembly Plenary Session Set for Thursday
The National Assembly will hold its first plenary session meeting on Thursday since Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 68 members of parliament last month approved an Assembly president and chairpersons to head the body’s nine committees, and despite the opposition CNRP still refusing to take their ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/first-cpp-national-assembly-plenary-session-set-for-thursday-44452/
ILO Initiative Could Unravel Cambodia’s Garment Industry: Manufacturers
A move by the International Labour Organization to name and shame garment producers in Cambodia that flout workers’ rights and safety standards could damage the industry’s reputation and result in a drastic reduction in orders from buyers abroad, according to a senior manufacturing official. Last week, ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/initiative-10042013150820.html
Controversial Dam Approved on Cambodia-Laos Border
Laos has notified the Mekong River Commission (MRC) that it will go ahead with the construction of the Don Sahong Dam, which environmentalists say could threaten the ecosystem of the Lower Mainstream Mekong and have a severe impact on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/controversial-dam-approved-on-cambodia-laos-border-44401/
Three Charged for $2.3 Million Embezzlement From Banks
The former manager of Canadia Bank’s credit section, along with two accomplices at the bank, were charged Thursday with theft and forgery for allegedly embezzling about $2.3 million from ABA and SBC banks, according to municipal court and police officials. “The deputy [municipal court] prosecutor has ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-charged-for-2-3-million-embezzlement-from-banks-44403/
Another Court Clerk Arrested for Corruption
A clerk at the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of corruption and bribe-taking, police and Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials said, but rights groups said clerks alone are not in a position to determine the course of court cases and that more ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-court-clerk-arrested-for-corruption-44366/
Cambodia: Chut Wutty's legacy creates an opportunity for land justice
In Cambodia, there is talk of change. Not just from Hun Sen, the prime minister, who has promised reforms after his party suffered a significant blow in recent elections, but from environmental activists and campaigners, who say there has never before been such an opportunity ...
Kate Hodal
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/02/cambodia-chut-wutty-land
Violence begets violence
A mob of 500 villagers beat a man to death in Kampong Cham province yesterday after he allegedly slaughtered his wife and stepdaughter with a pair of scythes and reportedly taunted the assembled crowd with his wife’s severed hand. Police said Laing Pises, 48, used the ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/violence-begets-violence
No motion in shooting probe
More than two weeks after the slaying of 29-year-old Mao Sok Chan in clashes at Phnom Penh’s Kbal Thnal overpass, police have yet to launch an internal investigation into the use of force, officials said yesterday. National military police spokesman Kheng Tito said he had no ...
Amelia Woodside and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-motion-shooting-probe
Court Hears Anti-Government Movement Case
The Court of Appeal on Tuesday began hearing the appeal of six men sentenced to between 15 and 17 years jail in 2011 for forming an armed anti-government force called the Sovanna Phum, or Golden Village, in 2006. The men‚ Chea Sarann, 51; Liv Soksovann, 51; ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-hears-anti-government-movement-case-44155/
Grenade Attack Remembered Amid Promised Reform
Opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha joined dozens of monks and hundreds of supporters on Monday for a Pchum Ben ceremony at the memorial stupa in Phnom Penh honoring the 16 people who were killed by a grenade attack on an opposition rally in ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/grenade-attack-remembered-amid-promised-reform-43996/
Activists Doubt Cambodia Pledge to Stop Land Concessions
Activists are skeptical that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will follow through on a pledge to stop a contentious practice of appropriating rural land for commercial use, an issue that hurt the leader and his party in elections in July. In its new five-year political platform ...
Chun Han Wong
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-341290/
Complaint Lodged Against Commune Chief
Villagers have accused a CPP commune chief in Ratanakkiri province of threatening four ethnic minority Tampoun men after they filed a complaint against him for allegedly selling off community land to a local businessman. Rocham Norng, a Tampoun villager in Bakeo district, has alleged that Soeung ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/complaint-lodged-against-commune-chief-44004/
Malaysian and Sri Lankan Charged Over Bank Card Scam
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday heard the case of a Malaysian and a Sri Lankan charged with using fake bank cards to withdraw up to $50,000 from ATMs during Khmer New Year in 2012. Delvin Joshap, 30, of Malaysia, had masterminded the crime and ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/malaysian-and-sri-lankan-charged-over-bank%E2%80%88card-scam-44012/
Japanese Ambassador, Police to Meet Following Shootings
The Japanese ambassador is set to meet with senior police officials to discuss the shooting of a Japanese tourist in Phnom Penh on Saturday, according to an embassy official, while the U.S. Embassy on Monday said it was “very troubled” by a similar attack on ...
Saing Soenthrith and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/japanese-ambassador-police-to-meet-following-shootings-44000/
NGOs Call for Freedom of Information Laws
A coalition of 30 NGOs on Friday called on the Government to draft and pass a freedom of information law to overthrow its “culture of secrecy”. The groups said Saturday is the 10th Right to Know Day, but that Cambodians are being denied a “fundamental human ...
Lauren Crothers, P.12
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/
After CPP Reshuffle, Sok An’s Fiefdom Trimmed
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An has a stunning portfolio of positions within the CPP government. On Monday, CPP lawmakers once again appointed Mr. An as the Cabinet Minister for Prime Minister Hun Sen. He is also the chairman of the state-controlled Cambodian National Petroleum Authority and ...
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/after-cpp-reshuffle-sok-ans-fiefdom-trimmed-43665/
Database looks at court flaws
Nearly half of defendants lack legal representation, 80 per cent are held in pretrial detention, and a sizeable chunk confess before they get a hearing, according to an online public database released yesterday by the Cambodia Center for Human Rights. The database reveals numerous infringements on ...
Laignee Barron and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/database-looks-court-flaws
Defence minister warns against general strike
Defence Minister Tea Banh yesterday said the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces are ready to protect the Kingdom’s constitution should the opposition’s threatened general strike fall on the wrong side of the law. “A nationwide general strike or mass demonstration must be held under the framework of ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/defence-minister-warns-against-general-strike
Suspects Freed; No Hope of Justice for Slain Union Leader
Sok Sam Oeun and Born Samnang left Prey Sar prison’s Correctional Center 1 on Thursday for the last time, putting behind them an ordeal that has lasted nearly a decade during which they were wrongfully imprisoned for a total of five years each for the ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/suspects-freed-no-hope-of-justice-for-slain-union-leader-43679/
Compensation for Falsely Jailed Men Unlikely in Cambodia
After spending 2,073 days in prison, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun were exonerated on Wednesday by the Supreme Court of having killed popular union leader Chea Vichea in 2004. Legal expert Sok Sam Oeun of the Cambodian Defenders Project said that although the two ...
Denise Hruby and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/compensation-for-falsely-jailed-men-unlikely-in-cambodia-43684/
Community Patrol Gets Luxury-Wood Haul
A community forest patrol of locals yesterday confiscated a large haul of illegally logged luxury wood that was being transported to the Vietnamese border in Mondolkiri province, local officials said. Commune police chief Pech Sotheary said the case has been referred to provincial forestry administration ...
Mech Dara, P.20
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/
Jubilation as Pair Acquitted of Union Leader’s Assassination
Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, the men wrongfully sentenced to 20 years in prison for the 2004 murder of Free Trade Union (FTU) leader Chea Vichea, were exonerated Wednesday by the Supreme Court of the crime. Responding to the acquittal, Chea Vichea’s brother, Chea Mony, ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/jubilation-as-pair-acquitted-of-union-leaders-assassination-43396/
Judicial reform pledged by PM
The Cambodian government has privately pledged that it will pass the long-awaited “three fundamental laws” aimed at reforming the judiciary during the first session of parliament in early 2014, UN rights envoy Surya Subedi said. The laws – which focus on codifying the court’s jurisdiction, laying ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/judicial-reform-pledged-pm
Ministers Told to Prepare for Public Scrutiny
During an epic speech on Wednesday that lasted for more than six-and-a-half hours, Prime Minister Hun Sen told his newly approved Cabinet that they would be subject to increased public scrutiny as part of a series of reforms to be undertaken by the CPP over ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/ministers-told-to-prepare-for-public-scrutiny-43405/