Law and judiciary

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet, arrived back in Phnom Penh on Monday after two weeks in the U.S. and Canada, deriding a lawsuit filed against him in Los Angeles for wrongful imprisonment that includes a count of “international terrorism.” ...

Police will investigate a number of NGO workers who government officials say were involved in the false testimony of Khom Chandaraty, the alleged mistress of opposition acting president Khem Sokha, after Ms. Chandaraty published an open letter accusing the officials of encouraging her to lie ...

Helmeted state security guards on Thursday blocked landowners from entering their plots in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district as heavy machinery razed crude structures and leveled the earth to make way for a hotly disputed road construction project.   ...

National Police anti-drug chief Mok Chito yesterday said his officers need to begin inserting themselves into a stage of investigations until now the sole domain of the judiciary – drug testing.   ...

National Election Committee (NEC) Secretary-General Tep Nytha said on Thursday that next year’s crucial commune council elections would likely be held in June but that the decision must ultimately come from the government.   ...

Human rights group Licadho has criticised the Cambodian Telecoms Law that came into effect in December of last year, saying it “poses a severe threat to freedom of expression”. ...

In 2001, a man with the same name and address as Tuol Kork-based computer salesman Thai Tino established the first of several shell companies incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.   ...

Notorious former military police officer and purported illegal-timber trader Sou Marith was apprehended yesterday morning along with three other men while allegedly transporting timber in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district. ...

Labor Ministry officials have filed a complaint to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court accusing four union officials of public defamation, insulting public officers and blocking public roads. ...

In 2008, British American Tobacco (BAT) was awarded its third straight “Gold Medal” from Prime Minister Hun Sen in recognition of good corporate stewardship, according to the company’s July newsletter. ...

The illegal timber trade to Vietnam, a key nexus in a shadow industry worth billions of dollars, has been all but eliminated, an official said yesterday in summarising a new report from the government’s anti-logging commission, a claim met with disbelief by more than one ...

A Montagnard asylum seeker was found dead on Wednesday morning in a Phnom Penh residence provided by the U.N.’s refugee agency, having committed suicide in his room, according to police. ...

Environmental activists yesterday renewed their calls for Angkor Beer maker Cambrew to clarify its director’s relationship with the controversial Don Sahong dam currently under construction in southern Laos.   ...

Police in Koh Kong province reported yesterday that 49 Cambodians were caught trying to cross the Thai border during a forest patrol on Monday in Smach Meanchey district.   ...

Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana quipped over the weekend that anyone who can find his offshore financial holdings—revealed earlier this month as part of the “Panama Papers” leak—can keep the money, according to Information Minister Khieu Kanharith. ...

Phnom Penh has welcomed a decision by China to continue releasing water into the Mekong from the Jinhong Dam – even though it is likely to do little to alleviate drought conditions.    ...

Authorities in Australia have expanded the scope of their investigation into bribery allegations involving the relatives of Cambodian government officials and the former Cambodian operations of Australian miner OZ Minerals, the firm has announced.   ...

Police in Long Beach, California, said on Saturday that they had opened an investigation into the alleged assault of an American man by a bodyguard of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s son Hun Manet.   ...

National Police on Sunday said Khmer New Year traffic figures were evidence that the new traffic law has been a success, with 98 traffic accidents reported over the four-day holiday this year, a drop from 123 in 2015, when it was a three-day holiday.   ...

Although 254 people were either killed or injured in traffic accidents across the Kingdom during this year’s Khmer New Year, and the fatality rate rose, the rate of injury over the four-day celebration decreased when compared with the same period last year, according to a ...

Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, the outspoken director of the environmental group Mother Nature, has written to the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders to request that he pressure the government to release three Mother Nature activists imprisoned on charges stemming from an anti-sand ...

The U.S. State Department’s annual Human Rights Report, released on Wednesday, highlights poor treatment of Cambodia’s political opposition in 2015, and raises concerns about the judiciary’s “broad interpretation” of the crime of incitement.   ...

Outdoor tables and chairs belonging to bars and restaurants on Sihanoukville’s Serendipity Beach were removed by local authorities on Tuesday as part of a campaign to beautify the city’s beaches by ridding them of illegal commercial activity, an official said on Wednesday. ...

A journalist in Pailin province yesterday filed a lawsuit against a local police officer for allegedly threatening to kill him if he published a story about a drunken shooting spree the officer went on last week. ...