Law and judiciary

Authorities destroyed nearly 1,000 boxes of counterfeit beer yesterday following earlier raids sparked by a complaint filed by the sole distributor of the brand name beer. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party leaders yesterday summoned members from across the Kingdom instructing them how to comply with impending new laws that will see former party President Sam Rainsy scrubbed clean from their prolific billboards – but not without a hint of defiance. ...

Banteay Meanchey Provincial Police are hunting four more suspects believed to be connected to a recent case of smuggling weapons to Thailand, with an official saying the group is accused of transporting the ordnance across the border. ...

National Police are monitoring Facebook to repress attempts to create a “rebel movement against the government” through negative posts and are working to better control civil society groups that have “opposition trends” and try to cause instability in society, a semiannual police report issued yesterday ...

Banteay Meanchey police have arrested three men, including a deminer from the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), for their alleged involvement in selling three mortars seized last week by Thai authorities, who, in a separate raid in Thailand near the country’s border with Myanmar, detained ...

King Norodom Sihamoni will once again be out of Cambodia on the day that widely condemned new laws are due to be signed into force, prompting some observers to suggest he is abstaining from affixing his signature to politically questionable legislation. ...

More than 90 percent of construction workers in the capital do not receive paid holiday, a survey into the industry has revealed. ...

Phnom Penh military police officials have arrested tycoon Sok Heng and some aides involved in a land dispute in Phnom Penh’s Prek Pnov district. ...

Two of Cambodia’s minor parties yesterday railed against the adoption of amendments to the Law on Political Parties, saying their rapid push through parliament waylaid important legislation and served only the political interests of Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...

The CNRP is expected today to urge King Norodom Sihamoni to withhold his signature from a set of changes to the Law on Political Parties designed to sideline opposition figure Sam Rainsy. ...

Police tackled 615 forestry and wildlife crimes in the first half of the year, with 376 cases ending up in court and the remaining 239 leading to administrative fines. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen donated $10,000 to Kem Ley’s family yesterday to help with the costs of a ceremony commemorating the one-year anniversary of the murdered political analyst’s assassination. ...

The Senate, as predicted, passed contentious changes to the Law on Political Parties yesterday in a bid to erase – in some cases literally – opposition figure Sam Rainsy from Cambodia’s political scene. ...

Police destroyed more than 60,000 marijuana plants spread across 3 hectares of land in a well-known Takeo province hotspot for growing the illegal crop, officials said on Tuesday. ...

Thai police have arrested a fourth suspect in the weapons smuggling case linked to a Cambodian immigration officer, according to Thai media, while a senior Cambodian Defence Ministry official said yesterday that any suggestions that the weapons came from Cambodia’s military arsenal had been ruled ...

Thirty-one Chinese nationals were arrested in three districts of Phnom Penh on Monday in the latest police crackdown on alleged fraudsters accused of operating a scam using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), according to a police report supplied by an immigration official. ...

The Ministry of Interior has set up a working group to oversee the elimination of illegal checkpoints along national roads and on waterways. According to a statement penned by Interior Minister Sar Kheng last Wednesday and obtained yesterday, the working group is comprised of eight ...

Police in Phnom Penh will next month start issuing fines of up to $25 for violations of parking regulations by using handheld devices that scan license plates and recognize the registered identity and address of a vehicle’s owner, an official said yesterday. ...

The Interior Ministry’s Central Security Department yesterday announced two hotlines for the public to report possible kidnappings after a spike in Facebook comments about parents losing their children. According to a statement issued yesterday, the purpose of the hotlines is to assist authorities with locating ...

Police in Oddar Meanchey province have reprimanded six Thais caught fishing illegally in Samrong town. Kon Kriel commune police chief Path Kim said the six men were educated and released. ...

The Mondolkiri Provincial Court this morning sentenced Dutch man Stefan Struik, 53, to two years in prison for helping his Vietnamese boyfriend, Nguyen Thanh Dung, 34, flee the country after videos of Mr. Nguyen torturing a 2-year-old Cambodian boy were posted on Facebook. ...

The Mondulkiri Provincial Court and mines and energy officials said they are investigating illegal sand exports to Vietnam following the questioning of four people who were intercepted yesterday by authorities driving truckloads of sand toward the eastern border. ...

A large rock smashed through the side window of a car that had just dropped off members of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice in Kandal province on Tuesday night, the group’s leader But Buntenh said on Wednesday. ...

While highly contentious new rules were being passed in the National Assembly on Monday banning the CNRP from collaborating with its former leader Sam Rainsy, photographs were posted to Facebook of senior opposition lawmakers dining at a riverside hotel in Kampot province. ...