Law and judiciary

The Interior Ministry has filed a Supreme Court complaint requesting the dissolution of nine political parties accused of flouting their obligations under the Law on Political Parties. ...

The government is to give the Bar Association a 50 percent boost in the legal aid budget by 2018 to pay lawyers who defend the poor for free. ...

The Cambodia Daily yesterday said it was under “siege” and continued to call the government’s targeting of the newspaper an attack on press freedom, as five radio station owners that had been ordered to shut stop attempted to resume their services. // //   ...

The National Commercial Arbitration Center (NCAC) has settled its first two cases, marking the first time in Cambodia for commercial disputes to be resolved using an independent arbitration panel instead of the country’s court system. ...

A cabinet meeting on Friday amended several articles of the fisheries law to limit the use of narrow fishing nets and introduce licences for some mechanised equipment. ...

Out of 600 prisoners at Kampong Thom prison 18 may have their sentences reduced by six to 12 months for the upcoming Water Festival in November. ...

President of the department for traffic police Ron Rath Veasna met with private bus companies yesterday to discuss a report indicating that the number of traffic accidents caused by private buses has increased. ...

The Senate amended its internal rules yesterday to punish senators who miss sessions by docking their salaries, while also voting down a measure to appoint the wife of Hong Sok Hour to fill his former seat on the body’s anti-corruption committee. ...

Owners of all cars for sale around Freedom Park and Chas market have seven days to move them out of the area or face removal of their vehicles by the Daun Penh authority. ...

A sub-decree establishing Cambodia’s first juvenile prison will be issued by the start of September, Minister of Social Affairs Vong Soth told United Nations Special Rapporteur Rhona Smith on Wednesday. ...

Officials from the forestry administration raided a home in Mondulkiri province’s O’Raing district on Tuesday, confiscating the remains and horns of various endangered animals and making one arrest. ...

A new Environment and Natural Resources Law is to be submitted to the National Assembly by the end of this year. ...

Activists rejected an apology on Monday from a prominent television news host for remarks he made that a rapist and murderer should have kept his victim alive to “keep her for using again,” saying he was not genuinely sorry. ...

Tep Vanny stood beside four effigies on a dusky evening last August, marshalling other Boeung Kak residents to light incense sticks, hold lotus stems and throw rice at the four life-size dummies while shouting curses.​ ...

A local television presenter is facing heavy criticism for an inflammatory on-air suggestion that rape victims should not resist their attackers, and should instead accept sexual assault to avoid being killed – a reference to a brutal rape and murder of an 18-year-old woman in ...

Police in Pailin province yesterday arrested two suspects accused of brokering illegal passage for migrant workers into Thailand. ...

Opposition CNRP lawmakers have suggested amendments to a law which would let Cambodian migrant workers register and vote abroad. The amendments were sent to National Assembly President Heng Samrin on Friday. ...

Political commentator Kim Sok was sentenced to 18 months in prison this afternoon on charges of incitement and defamation for appearing to suggest that the ruling party was behind the killing of popular analyst Kem Ley. ...

The Ministry of Interior has issued new regulations to stamp out corruption at one-window services across the country, where residents go to have public documents certified. The order was signed on Tuesday by Interior Minister Sar Kheng, and is aimed at  ensuring quality, transparency and accountability ...

Phnom Penh City Hall has set its sights on the many pawn shops in the city, ordering police to check that each shop has proper registration papers. ...

In a decision roundly criticised by rights observers, the Appeal Court yesterday upheld a two-and-a-half-year sentence for Boeung Kak activist Tep Vanny for her alleged involvement in a 2013 protest outside Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in Phnom Penh that turned violent. ...

A Phnom Penh police unit responsible for intervening during protests and demonstrations publicized a training exercise featuring the use of live rounds on Monday, in what one opposition lawmaker labeled an intimidation tactic. ...

Oil giant Chevron has been ordered by a U.S. district court judge to turn over a wide range of documents and information it may possess relating to the murder of political analyst Kem Ley at a Phnom Penh Caltex gas station in July last year. ...

Political fixture and former Co-Defence Minister Nhek Bun Chhay was officially charged yesterday with conspiracy to produce drugs and importing drug components after being linked to a decade-old bust by one of the men convicted in the original case. ...