Legal framework

Local and international NGOs yesterday rallied behind the inaugural United Nations-declared International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists by urging the government to bring perpetrators to justice. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that the government was not responsible for any ...

Police in Cambodia have stepped up pressure on an anti-Vietnamese dissident group, claiming it is planning the violent overthrow of the government, local media reported Monday. The Khmer National Liberation Front, which alleges that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is a puppet of Vietnam, has “hundreds ...

Five of the six union leaders accused of alleged criminal activity during nationwide garment worker strikes and demonstrations in December and January are now under judicial supervision after two more of the group appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday. ...

Following a two-hour low-speed boat chase down the Mekong River in Kandal province early Thursday morning, some 100 angry villagers led by a local opposition official detained five Vietnamese nationals they say have been using illegal fishing techniques for the past three months. ...

An Italian man was among five people arrested in Sihanoukville on Tuesday afternoon for running an illegal gambling website, officials said Wednesday. ...

The manager of a recruitment firm in Kampong Speu province was arrested this week for allegedly duping 50 workers out of $150 each on the unfulfilled promise of getting them work in Thailand. ...

Thousands of employees at Grand Twins International, Cambodia’s only publicly listed garment factory, will be back at the assembly line today after nearly two weeks on strike, accepting a court order to return to work. Workers will follow the order the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued ...

A report from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has decried the killing of journalists with no consequences, listing Cambodia as one of several countries where members of the press have been killed since 2004 “with complete impunity”. From 2004 to 2013, 370 journalists ...

Nine Nigerian nationals arrested by police in Phnom Penh on Sunday night for possession and distribution of crystal methamphetamine were in Cambodia without passports or valid visas, an anti-drug police chief said. ...

Six sawmills in Preah Vihear province suspected of processing illegal timber were raided on Monday by police, military police and Forestry Administration officers who confiscated an undisclosed amount of luxury-grade wood product during their searches, an official said. ...

The Kampong Cham Provincial Court yesterday ordered that five workers who were arrested during a violent protest at Juhui Footwear on Saturday be held in prison while charges against them are investigated. Two of them, Khun Sokhom and Mon Sarem, officials from the Coalition of Cambodian ...

Three Cambodian men arrested in Thailand last week were returned to Preah Vihear province on Monday and claim they were tortured by the Thai military before being released, according to a military colonel in the area who provided a video of the men’s accounts. According ...

Media experts are asking the government to consider granting citizen journalists the same safeguards as professional journalists under Cambodia’s Press Law. ...

A senior police official said Monday that the leader of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), 10 members of which were charged Sunday with plotting to incite violence, was once part of the Tiger Head movement, another supposed terrorist organization. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned two prominent union leaders for questioning on Friday over charges that they incited violence and property damage at a garment worker protest in Phnom Penh in January during which military police fatally shot at least five people. ...

Anti-drug police officers arrested nine foreign nationals in a sting on a rental house on Sunday, accusing the men of involvement in a drug-trafficking ring catering to other foreigners in the vicinity of Phnom Penh’s Central Market, police said yesterday. ...

Dissatisfied by wages at home, thousands of Cambodians have been lured to Malaysia by the promise of bigger pay cheques, but while many have found themselves subjected to long hours, unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions and even physical abuse, they have – until now – ...

Ten tonnes of protected rosewood found stashed in a tanker truck bearing the logo of petroleum giant Sokimex was seized by police in Oddar Meanchey province on Friday. In August, police found 14 tons of rosewood hidden in the tanker of another truck bearing the ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a conviction against former Phnom Penh Police chief Heng Pov and three other men for the attempted murder of Military Police chief General Sao Sokha in 2003. ...

Cambodia has over the last six months deported more than 500 foreigners from 21 countries for illegally entering or staying in the country, according to a report seen Thursday. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the murder convictions of former Phnom Penh Municipal Police chief Heng Pov and three others in the case of the 2003 killing of Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Sok Sethamoni. Defendants Pov, Ly Rasy, Hang Vutha and Prum Sophearith have been ...

Police in Kratie province on Monday arrested two journalists for allegedly extorting $100 from a villager whose stockpile of wood the reporters suspected had been illegally logged, according to local officials. ...

Long considered the friendlier and less exploitative option for overseas Cambodian migrants, South Korea is now being slammed by Amnesty International for a number of abuses afflicting its migrant-dominated agriculture sector. The 20,000 foreign workers fuelling South Korea’s farming industry regularly encounter intimidation, violence, excessive working ...

A coalition of NGOs are to submit to the National Assembly today a list of recommended additions to the amended traffic law, a draft of which was approved by the Council of Ministers in August. Road safety advocates hope the amended law, which creates higher fines ...