Law and judiciary

A soldier and two civilians were charged on Wednesday with illegally clearing forest land by the Kompong Thom Provincial Court, while a second soldier who allegedly guarded the illicit operation has been charged with illegal weapons possession, a court official said Thursday. ...

A street seller who beat a Thai tourist to death with a pole outside a restaurant in Koh Kong province’s Khemara Phoumint City on Tuesday night was charged with murder by the provincial court on Wednesday, officials said Thursday. ...

Opposition leaders have been unable to negotiate a release of 11 political activists handed steep sentences earlier this month for their alleged involvement in violent demonstrations last year. ...

A group of opposition lawmakers has urged the Constitutional Council to amend a contentious law on regulating NGOs in the country. Prum Nhean Vicheth, a spokesman for the Constitutional Council, confirmed receipt of the petition and said the Council will be considering the draft law ...

The opposition is expected today to lodge a constitutional challenge to the controversial law on associations and non-governmental organisations (LANGO) in a last-ditch effort to stop the legislation before it’s signed by the King. ...

An international arrest warrant has finally been issued for Chhouk Bundith, the former governor of Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City who went into hiding before being found guilty of shooting three garment workers three years ago, according to National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday delayed a verdict in the $1-million fraud case brought by a Phnom Penh dentist against Cambodian-American businessman Richer San and three of his associates, saying further investigation is needed. ...

Drivers in Cambodia have a lot to contend with: cavernous potholes, weaving motorcycles kicking up clouds of choking dust and noodle hawkers trundling down the “fast” lane. Now motorists may find their pockets as ravaged as their nerves, after officials announced a fivefold bump in ...

Long-awaited regional appeal courts, intended to ease a logjam of pending cases caused by inmate transportation issues, will be unveiled in three provinces next year, Ministry of Justice officials said yesterday. ...

The Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia on Tuesday wrote to local rights group Adhoc accusing its head of monitoring, Ny Chakrya, of flouting legal practice by ordering the NGO’s lawyers to hand over for examination all documents relating to cases they defend. ...

Concerned Koh Kong residents, joined by environmental activists from the campaign group Mother Nature, began an ambitious protest last weekend in the province’s Andong Teuk commune. ...

When police arrested real estate tycoon Sok Bun earlier this month, it seemed to be in response to an outcry on social media, which showed closed-circuit footage of him beating a famous TV actress at a restaurant in the capital. It was a rare arrest, ...

An activist with Cambodia’s opposition party on Tuesday accused a former senior official with the country’s intelligence organization of making death threats against him, causing him to fear for his life, and has called on local authorities and civil society groups to investigate the incident. ...

Implementation of the new Land Traffic Law that was passed in December will officially begin on January 1, an official said Monday, with police focusing on the leading causes of traffic accidents, starting with speeding. ...

Traffic cops will personally pocket 70 per cent of the fines they give out from January 2016 onwards, when the country’s new traffic law is implemented and penalties will rise five-fold.The incentive was announced yesterday by the deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s Public Order ...

A Cambodian man was left dead after a group of fishermen from Kampot province clashed with Vietnamese fishermen while at sea on Sunday evening, according to officials. ...

Three factory workers shot more than three years ago by a town governor who remains at large have come to Phnom Penh to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to take action in their case, given the recent success of the premier’s call to arrest a ...

Cambodia’s strongman premier Monday brushed off recent criticism over a string of lengthy jail sentences handed to opposition activists, adding that there would be no political deal for their release.​ ...

Kem Sokha, acting president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), visited this morning his 11 activists who were sentenced to jail from 7-20 years . ...

Three victims injured in a public shooting in early 2012 have called on the prime minister to intervene and find the former governor convicted of the crime. ...

Opposition lawmaker Um Sam An has been suspended from the next 15 sessions of parliament and will have his salary cut as punishment for critical comments he posted to Facebook earlier this month, according to a statement issued Friday by the National Assembly’s Sec­retariat General. ...

An NGO director claimed Sunday that authorities in Svay Rieng province blocked a group he was leading from visiting homes they had rebuilt near the Vietnamese border in Romeas Hek district. ...

Authorities in Phnom Penh on Sunday arrested and released six people dressed in prison uniforms and chained together by their legs for protesting outside the National Assembly against a recently approved law that threatens to muzzle NGOs critical of the government ...

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court’s decision and refused to release on bail Lay Huong, the alleged mastermind of a plot to kill a government minister’s wife. ...