Crime and law enforcement

Cambodia’s badly overcrowded prison population leapt by nearly 20 per cent in the first 10 months of this year, government data show, raising serious health concerns.The figures, released by the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons yesterday, show that there were 17,522 prisoners in jails ...

The Ratanakkiri prison director accused of a litany of crimes by his underlings has fired back, denying their reports and accusing them of drug-taking, laziness and running illegal timber businesses. ...

Dozens of officials at Ratanakkiri Provincial Prison have called for the director of the facility to be removed, citing a wide range of violations, including having sex with a female inmate, permitting unsanctioned prison labour and pocketing money paid in exchange for benefits. ...

Nearly a year after being signed into law, Cambodia’s new traffic code is just weeks from finally being enforced.National Police chief Neth Savoeun yesterday said that drivers have had plenty of notice, and the time for implementation has come. As of January 1, fines for ...

In the wake of attacks in Paris and San Bernadino, California, young Cambodians say they are concerned their country is not prepared for similar attacks. Cambodian officials say the government is ready to respond to attacks, though, as the recent mob beatings of two opposition ...

For many Cambodian victims of sexual assault, justice can be hard to find. Not only can it be difficult culturally to report rape and other crimes, but police and the courts are not necessarily well trained to deal with sensitive crimes. Add to that judicial ...

A Vietnamese woman imprisoned on child sex trafficking charges in 2009 received a humanitarian royal pardon last month, but only after she had been dead for more than a month, the rights NGO Licadho said yesterday. ...

Rights group Licadho says it is canceling its annual prison visits on international Human Rights Day, which this year falls on Thursday, for the first time in two decades in protest over what it says are new government restrictions. ...

Convicted tycoon Thong Sarath yesterday began an appeal of his June conviction for possessing and using illegal weapons.He was arrested in April after allegedly masterminding the assassination of another construction magnate, Ung Meng Cheu, in November last year. ...

Fast approaching six months since its creation, a special commission to investigate the cold-case killings of three union figures, including Free Trade Union president Chea Vichea, has nothing to report. ...

Almost 50 garment workers are recovering from their injuries in the hospital or at home after the flatbed truck that was transporting them home from work in Kompong Chhnang province on Monday evening plunged into a canal, police said on Tuesday. ...

More than 100 prisoners in Cambodia have received royal pardons and hundreds more have seen their sentences reduced under King Norodom Sihamoni’s traditional Water Festival clemency, a local English newspaper reported Wednesday. ...

Security will be tightened in Cambodia during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev from Nov. 22 to 24, the National Police’s website reported on Saturday. ...

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, for whom an arrest warrant was issued last week, will not be returning to Phnom Penh until a deal is struck to secure his freedom. ...

An international rights group Saturday called the warrant for the arrest of Cambodia’s opposition leader in a years-old defamation case “politically motivated”, saying it should be dropped immediately. ...

Fifty-five garment workers from three factories were injured in a traffic accident on Thursday eve­ning when a truck carrying them home from work ran off a highway in Kompong Chhnang prov­ince, officials said. ...

A Cambodian court on Friday ordered the arrest of an opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, in connection with a seven-year-old defamation case, and his party accused Prime Minister Hun Sen of being behind the move to gain the upper hand in their political fight. ...

Phnom Penh’s municipal governor yesterday called on citizens to start obeying traffic laws and using the city’s fledgling public-transportation system as he addressed widespread discontent with traffic issues. ...

Two opposition lawmakers who were attacked outside the National Assembly last month have filed a complaint of attempted murder against their assailants. ...

The almost 400 inmates held in Kampot Provincial Prison were transferred yesterday to a new facility, which officials say is better fit for purpose but a local rights group claims lacks any clean water. ...

 A total of 254 Chinese citizens arrested in Cambodia and Indonesia for running telephone and Internet scams targeting Chinese victims were repatriated Tuesday to face charges in China, the Public Security Ministry said. ...

Authorities in a northern Cambodian province on Monday rounded up six suspects for questioning in the killing of two officials and wounding of another who were on patrol in a preserved forest area, in the latest apparent confrontation between illegal loggers and officials, provincial police ...

A former inmate at Kampong Speu and Trapaing Phlong prisons claimed yesterday he witnessed rampant drug dealing at both facilities and plans to file a complaint with the support of NWRPO, a local NGO. ...

The Ministry of Interior is reviewing a list of more than 700 inmates eligible for pardons or reduced sentences during the upcoming Water Festival. ...