Laws and regulations

A yearlong investigation by immigration police culminated in the arrest on Saturday of 17 Bangladeshi men hiding in Phnom Penh and Poipet City to avoid charges of human trafficking in their home country, police said Sunday. Three of the fugitives, arrested   at a guesthouse in Phnom ...

A prominent Phnom Penh businessman died after being shot six times by an unidentified gunman outside a fruit shop in Chamkar Mon district on Saturday, according to military police, who believe the murder was an assassination. Ung Meng Chue, 53, a construction tycoon who held the ...

Hundreds of people gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to mark the International Day to End Impunity, calling on the government to tackle the issue by reforming its court system. Speaking at the event at the capital’s Cambodiana Hotel, Preap Kol, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, ...

A group of civil society organization has condemned recent arrest of two citizens who were involved in a land dispute with the Khun Sear Import Export company, and called on the government to release them and ensure the safety of their family. In a joint statement ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Friday that the CNRP would attempt to secure the release of detained CNRP official Meach Sovan­nara by promoting him to become a lawmaker so that he can enjoy parliamentary immunity. Mr. Sovannara, the head of the CNRP’s information department, was arrested ...

A 24-year-old student was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for posting 14 nude photos of his girlfriend on Facebook in an attempt to extort money from her in exchange for deleting them. Presiding judge Mong Mony Sorphea said ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thursday that he and his government have no rights to order the courts to arrest or release any suspects who have committed crimes. “I and the government have no rights to order the judiciary, the court to arrest anyone based ...

European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists’ arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”. ...

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong yesterday defended the independence of Cambodia’s judiciary following concerns raised by a UN official about the whirlwind imprisonment of 11 activists arrested for protesting last week. Kuong accused Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights, of making a habit ...

Despite opposition party hopes to the contrary, the Ministry of Justice yesterday rejected the idea that it could intervene in the court system to release Meach Sovannara, a Cambodia National Rescue Party official jailed last week. According to ministry spokesman Kem Santepheap, a letter from CNRP ...

King Norodom Sihamoni officially appointed new members to the judicial body that oversees the Kingdom’s judges and prosecutors last week, following the passing of a controversial law earlier this year outlining its organisation and functioning. According to a Royal Decree that was signed Thursday by the ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng received a letter from Sam Rainsy who called for the release of Meach Sovannara, head of CNRP’s information and media department, and will send the letter to the Ministry of Justice, a senior official said Friday. ...

The Appeal Court has set a date to hear the case of 23 garment workers and unionists who were convicted in May in connection with violent protests calling for a doubling of the sector’s minimum wage.​ ...

Following days of high-profile convictions and charges dealt at breakneck speed, based on little evidence and little investigation, a prominent legal expert said yesterday that the law “needs to be updated” to change Cambodia’s widely decried court system. ...

The Cambodian government is carrying out a new wave of arrests of opposition party and social activists. Cambodia’s donors should speak out against the government’s harassment, arbitrary detention, and summary trials of peaceful protesters and the government should end the crackdown. The crackdown has ...

Civil society groups have condemned the arrest, detention and conviction of seven Boeung Kok land activists, following their protests earlier this week outside Phnom Penh City Hall. Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged them with the violation of traffic law by blocking a public ...

The Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday convicted four additional protesters of obstructing public officials and sentenced each of them to one year in prison, a rights group said. The four convicts were arrested on Tuesday while joining a protest in front of the ...

The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Wednesday released five factory workers on bail three weeks after they were charged with instigating violence and destroying property during a protest that turned violent at the Juhui Footwear factory late last month, according to their lawyer. Clashes at the ...

Police arrested another opposition activist Thursday morning for his alleged involvement in the violent July 15 protest at Freedom Park that the courts have labeled an attempted insurrection, a party official and police said. Tep Narin, a CNRP activist in his 30s, was arrested at the ...

A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced seven female land rights activists, including a 75-year-old woman, to one year in prison each for blocking traffic during a protest. Judge Mong Mony Sophea of Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruled the women were guilty of “creating a public ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy will meet with leaders of ruling party soon to seek release of a senior official. The arrest of Meach Sovannara is politically motivated and it needs to be politically intervened, said a party spokesman Yim Sovann. ...

The Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday convicted seven Vietnamese nationals of procuring prostitution and sentenced them between six and ten years in prison, according to a verdict pronounced by Judge Kor Vandy. ...

Meach Sovannara, an official from the opposition CNRP, was arrested while driving down Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, according to police and another CNRP official. Mr. Sovannara, who is also the director of the opposition Khmer Post Radio, was arrested in accordance with ...

The Ministry of Information yesterday announced a three-year public consultation period on a new access to information draft law that has been in the works since 2007. But freedom of information advocates greeted the news with scepticism, citing a lack of representation from civil society on ...