Law and judiciary

About 70 residents from a village in Siem Reap’s Ampil commune yesterday submitted a petition to provincial officials requesting that they not be switched to the authority of neighbouring Nokor Thom commune, though at least one local official claimed the matter was long decided. ...

Forestry crimes fell by around 9 percent last year compared to 2014, according to an annual report released by the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday. ...

Kratie’s provincial authorities on Friday gave an ultimatum to over 100 families living in Damrei Phong commune in Chhloung district, telling them to get off their land or face legal action.   ...

Opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour, who has been in prison since August on incitement and fraud charges, had his request for bail on health grounds heard by the Supreme Court on Friday. ...

Though Cambodia’s access to information law has been in the works for over a decade, participants at a seminar on the law yesterday said that they’re optimistic that the time is finally right for it to actually come to fruition. ...

The relaxing of trade restrictions in Southeast Asian countries has also increased the flow of illegal drugs into the region, according to a report released by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime on Thursday. ...

Environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson made a direct ap­peal to Prime Minister Hun Sen via Facebook on Wednesday for help se­curing a visa to return to Cambodia to attend his pending trial for aiding a trio of fellow activists. ...

About 500 people gathered outside Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison on Tuesday to demand the release of form­er Capitol Tours bus driver Nan Vanna and la­bor activist Ros Si­phay, who were arrested two weeks ago for participating in a demonstration against the company. ...

More than a month has passed since National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) named the people it suspects of profiting from the trade in illegal timber, but not a single arrest warrant or court summons has been issued since. As perpetrators continue to go unpunished, the illegal ...

Mobile SIM card sales slowed to a crawl in 2015 while the number of new subscribers using mobile internet services leaped by 30 per cent, according to a Ministry of Telecommunications factsheet. ...

The provincial court in Tbong Khmum province has charged four inmates with selling drugs in Trapaing Phlong prison after police found a bottle of methamphetamine pills hidden in the prison farm. ...

Nine families who lost their farmland to an under-construction special economic zone (SEZ) in Koh Kong province filed a complaint with the provincial government on Friday seeking to have the land excised from the industrial park and returned to them. ...

Provincial environment department officials shut down a gem mine in Pailin province yesterday, after an inspection found that the operators had not obtained proper authorisation. ...

A 60-year-old Mexican national working at a school in Sihanoukville was convicted of sexually abusing two young girls yesterday and sentenced to two years in prison, with one year of the sentence suspended, according to APLE Cambodia, a child rights NGO. ...

Following an order from the government this week for businesses on O’Tres and O’Chheuteal beaches to shut down, about 100 protesters in Phnom Penh on Thursday called for the decision to be overturned. ...

The Koh Kong provincial court has delayed issuing a verdict for an environmental activist charged with illegal logging. ...

Authorities say they are cracking down on illegal “press” license plates, threatening imprisonment for the offense. ...

A former MEC Co. Ltd shareholder was tried in absentia by the Court of Appeals yesterday morning for allegedly defaming his former company and MEC’s chairman, former Cambodian Prime Minister Ung Huot, in 2014, according to a court official. ...

A prosecutor at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court said on Wednesday that charges would stand against five union officials who were released on bail last month af­ter they were arrested during a brawl with a rival association, de­spite calls by a prominent labor leader to ...

Dozens of businesses from Sihanoukville’s Otres beach will deliver a letter to the National Assembly today seeking intervention on a government order to vacate the beach or be forcibly evicted. X Otres BeachX Yun Min ...

On trial at the Koh Kong Pro­vin­cial Court on Wednesday, anti-dam ac­tivist Ven Vorn denied the illegal logging charge laid against him last year over his involvement in the construction of a wooden community center, his lawyer said. ...

Mondolkiri provincial police chief Toch Yon has ordered authorities in Keo Seima district to search for fugitive former military police official Sou Ma­rith, after the district police chief said last week that he would not organize a manhunt without further funding. ...

Police in Kompong Thom prov­ince are searching for three men who held up the owners of a Wing mobile payment kiosk in Kom­pong Svay district on Mon­day night, the latest in a string of similar robberies. ...

A delegation from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) – a transnational organisation of lawmakers – met with lawmakers, several ministries and the UNHCR over the past two days to discuss concerns about the beating of two opposition lawmakers last October as well as the jailing of ...