Law and judiciary

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. ...

A draft United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released at a workshop on Monday praises efforts to crack down on sexual abuse of children but calls for measures to curb child pornography.​​ ...

A court investigation into illegal timber trafficking has targeted 11 provincial officials—including Mondolkiri’s heads of the military and military police, and potentially a court prosecutor—prompting the case’s transfer to Phnom Penh at the request of the justice minister, officials said on Tuesday. ...

Surveillance cameras set up throughout the capital will be synchronized and monitored nonstop from a central control room as part of a coordinated crimewatch effort between City Hall and the National Police, officials said on Tuesday. ...

A NEW international law firm is preparing to set up shop to provide foreign citizenship or residency services to Cambodia’s wealthy elite by helping to facilitate large overseas investments as well as business expansion plans. ...

Operations against human trafficking networks increased by a whopping 127 percent compared to the same period in 2016, according to a six-month report released yesterday by the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT). ...

The Cambodian embassy in Malaysia has repatriated 14 Cambodian fishermen who fled a Thai boat and are believed to be human trafficking victims, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.​​ ...

Child sex tourism is continuing to damage the lives of young Cambodians, while the internet is enabling perpetrators to carry out abuse, the Justice Minister has warned.​ ...

The National Assembly approved a draft law yesterday that will guarantee the state’s purchase of electricity from two large-scale private energy projects, protecting the investments against any loss resulting from political instability. ...

The National Assembly swiftly passed controversial new measures yesterday to effectively ban former opposition leader Sam Rainsy from the political arena or from bolstering the opposition’s firepower ahead of next year’s elections. ...

A petrol tanker truck was found with more than 2,000 pieces of luxury rosewood stashed inside its tank when it was intercepted by authorities in Phnom Penh last week, National Military Police spokesman Eng Hy said yesterday. ...

The Cambodia Royal Gendarmerie and Kratie provincial military police yesterday concluded a crackdown on a known timber smuggling route in Sambour district, confiscating nearly 100 pieces of wood equivalent to about 40 cubic metres. ...

Anti-economic crime police from the Interior Ministry yesterday seized more than four tonnes of illegal medicine in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district.​ ...

NGOs huddled yesterday to make sense of a letter from the Interior Ministry asking them to comply with controversial provisions of the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO), with some considering requesting further clarification or an extension of a September deadline for compliance. ...

Opposition lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang said yesterday that Cambodia National Rescue Party banners featuring self-exiled former party President Sam Rainsy will be taken down nationwide after a National Assembly vote on Monday that is expected to ban the use of his image in party materials. ...

Nearly 15,000 marijuana plants were destroyed in Takeo province’s Kirivong district on Wednesday evening, in the second such crackdown this week.​ ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng took aim at civil society on Tuesday night, warning NGOs to comply with the law or face legal action, at the same time the ministry ordered the ad hoc election monitoring group the Situation Room to cease any future monitoring activities. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision to deny jailed political analyst Kim Sok’s request for bail, also rejecting his request to summons Prime Minister Hun Sen, the plaintiff in the two defamation and incitement cases that landed the analyst in detention. ...