Law and judiciary

Police on Thursday raided three illegal gold mines in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district believed to have been operated by undocumented Vietnamese migrants, but made no arrests as all the camps had been abandoned, possibly just hours earlier. ...

Two villagers released on bail by the Kampot Provincial Court on Wednesday on charges of illegally clearing part of a social land concession for retired soldiers said Thursday they would not stop clearing the plot. ...

The new United Nations envoy to Cambodia concluded her first official visit to the country Thursday by calling on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to ensure the independence of the judiciary amid a host of land and labor disputes she said are encroaching on the ...

Leaders from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) will continue discussing a draft law on commune council elections next week, members of the party said yesterday. ...

Hong Sok Hour’s attorney on Monday submitted a five-page legal document making the case for charges of forgery and incitement against the Sam Rainsy Party senator to be dropped by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. ...

Cambodia is now free of “blue-ear” pig disease, which had infected more than 4,000 pigs in five provinces last month, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. ...

A British businessman jailed for more than 2 1/2 years without conviction was removed from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on the first day of his trial Wednesday after accusing the court of gross malpractice and threatening to walk out himself. ...

Environmental groups yesterday urged the government to seek greater legal clarity among the Mekong River countries about how they should share its resources. ...

Two villagers jailed earlier this month over a land dispute in Kampot province that authorities blame on League for Democracy Party president Khem Veasna were released on bail Wednesday, hours after Mr. Veasna told the media at a press conference that he had lost contact ...

Vice president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) Kem Sokha held talk with visiting new UN Human Right Envoy Rhona Smith at the National Assembly today. ...

Phnom Penh officials announced on Monday that the city had finalized its offer of compensation to 154 families who have spent years protesting their eviction from the Borei Keila neighborhood. ...

A group of 90 disgruntled workers protested Tuesday outside the office of a recruitment company that they say abandoned most of them at a border checkpoint on Saturday morning and cheated them out of the hundreds of dollars they had paid to work in Thailand. ...

Around 100 ethnic Phnong villagers held a protest Tuesday in support of five fellow residents questioned at a court in northeastern Cambodia’s Kratie province over “illegal logging” amid a land dispute with a Vietnamese rubber company they say has encroached on their community forest. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced a father who slapped a high school student across the face in a fit of rage to one year in prison, reduced to three months, with the rest suspended.​ ...

The prime minister has selected 14 senior officials – all members of the ruling party – to probe the cold-case murders of three union leaders, including Free Trade Union (FTU) president Chea Vichea, though scepticism remains about the timing and motivation behind the new investigation.According ...

Four people – two of them police officers – were sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for selling nearly a kilogram of methamphetamine to an undercover police officer in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district earlier this year. ...

Thai police on Monday repatriated 23 Cambodian men who were tricked into traveling to Thailand to log rosewood, according to an official. ...

Three villagers arrested for clearing state land to cultivate banana trees in Kompong Thom province have been released on bail, but remain under judicial supervision, according to a court document obtained Monday. ...

The Appeal Court yesterday denied bail to three environmental activists arrested in mid-August over their opposition to sand dredging in Koh Kong province. ...

More than 1,800 people have died on Cambodia’s roads so far this year, representing an almost 4 per cent increase in casualties compared to the same period in 2014. ...

Three members of the dissident Khmer People Power Movement (KPPM) serving sentences at Banteay Meanchey Provincial Prison have been pardoned, just days ahead of the scheduled return of the group’s self-exiled leader.The pardon for Serey Bunlong, 29; Seng Sokmeng, 31; and Um Phirun, 27, which ...

The government has pardoned and released three men convicted alongside self-exiled dissident Sourn Serey Ratha in January on terrorism charges that were characterized by rights groups as baseless and politically motivated. ...

Seung Hyung Lee did not know that blocking an excavator with his body would be part of his job description when he came to work in Cambodia. The senior vice-president of developer World City, however, found himself doing just that last week, when construction equipment ...

Eight Nigerians were sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday following a sting operation last year that culminated with an undercover officer purchasing 100 grams of crystal methamphetamine from one of the eight. ...