Legal framework

In the coming weeks, a task force composed of officials from the ministries of tourism, religion, culture and education will lead an expedition to a remote patch of forest on Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain where Vietnamese tourists pray, the education minister said Monday. ...

Families in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district have been protesting since Friday against wealthy businessman Khun Sear’s plan to build a brick wall that will effectively block access to their village. ...

About 25 former employees of the Chang Sheng Garment factory in Phnom Penh—which was destroyed in a fire last year—protested Sunday outside the offices of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU), which they accuse of withholding severance packages owed to some 180 ...

Environment officials in Ratanakkiri have over the past 10 days confiscated more than 500 pieces of valuable Sokrom wood found stockpiled throughout the province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary by illegal loggers, officials said Sunday. ...

The allocation of two new seats to Preah Sihanouk province and absence of seats for Phnom Penh in the recently distributed draft law on electoral reform has prompted concerns that attempts are being made to manipulate the playing field ahead of the 2018 election. Ou Virak, ...

A cameraman for national television broadcaster TVK was arrested on Saturday on direct orders from Deputy National Police Chief Mok Chito for using a fake police license plate and illegally possessing a police uniform and handgun, officials said Sunday. ...

The son of a police lieutenant colonel and a member of a commune council were among four people arrested Thursday in Kom­pong Thom province for dealing drugs and were remanded in custody, a court prosecutor said Friday. ...

The former chief of anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), who was jailed Friday by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges of indecently assaulting children, claimed the allegations were fabricated by APLE founder Thierry Darnaudet as revenge for reporting his ex-boss to authorities ...

A 20-year-old woman suffered serious burns to her face and body after being doused with acid in Phnom Penh on Friday in an attack allegedly carried out by a jealous wife who suspected the victim was sleeping with her husband. ...

New articles may be added to a draft law on disaster management, including punishments for officials who break the law. The current draft includes prison sentences and small fines for people who, for example, enter restricted areas during a disaster. ...

As police closed in on Montagnard asylum seekers hiding in the forests of Ratanakkiri province last week, Klan Hoeun, 42, said Wednesday that he knew he had to at least try to get the group to Phnom Penh, to safety. ...

A defrocked monk who was handed a one-year jail sentence for obstructing officials during a wave of arrests of activists and opposition figures in Phnom Penh last year was on Wednesday questioned over an additional charge of “joining a criminal association,” a human rights monitor ...

Following a bail hearing for CNRP information department chief Meach Sovannara at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the opposition party’s spokesman said he was “optimistic” that the court would decide to release the official when it announces a verdict on March 11. ...

The Tbong Khmum Provincial Court has not issued an arrest warrant for the nephew of a senior Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) general despite police naming him as the suspect in the shooting of another man more than five months ago, according to officials and ...

The body of a fisherman was discovered floating in the Tonle Sap lake in Kompong Chhnang province’s Boribor district on Tuesday after a vicious boating attack, police said Wednesday, in what is the fourth such incident on the lake this year. ...

Two Nigerians and three Cambodians were arrested Wednesday for attempting to rob $2,000 from a mobile-payment kiosk in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, police said. ...

Chin Sarin has been removed as Sihanoukville’s governor, according to the Interior Ministry, less than four months after the city’s police chief was sacked amid criticism that he was sleeping on the job as a violent crime wave swept through the seaside tourist hub. ...

National Police chief Neth Savoeun on Tuesday rebuked police in Kompong Speu province for allowing a man in a Mercedes-Benz SUV to escape after he fired a handgun 33 times in the air in apparent protest at a $3 speeding fine. ...

A businesswoman who was arrested in Thailand in December and extradited to Cambodia over charges of plotting to rape and murder the wife and daughter of the country’s commerce minister claimed after being denied bail by the Appeal Court on Tuesday that the minister was ...

Seven South Korean nationals were arrested in Siem Reap province Monday on suspicion of attempting to extort money from foreigners through Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, after a further six were detained for allegedly committing the same crime last month, an immigration official said ...

Two rival groups of tuk-tuk drivers clashed Monday evening in front of Phnom Penh’s railway station in Daun Penh district, beating each other with metal pipes and chains over a dispute regarding passengers, police said Tuesday. ...

Despite Cambodia’s unofficial freeze on inter-country adoptions, the Ministry of Social Affairs recently urged partner countries to reforge, in principle, their adoption partnerships with the Kingdom. In a statement issued on Monday, the ministry opened the application process for international adoption agencies, as only adoption agencies ...

An environmental activist in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley on Monday denied building an ecotourism information center with illegally logged wood after he was summoned to the local court to answer questions over alleged forestry crimes. ...

The chief of police in Ratanakkiri province on Monday denied that authorities arrested 36 Montagnards, who the U.N. and local villagers say were deported to Vietnam last week while attempting to reach Phnom Penh to apply for asylum. ...