Legal framework

Police and military police officials across the country on Wednesday said they had tightened security at shops and markets, a day after Interior Minister Sar Kheng threatened to demote provincial police chiefs who failed to make arrests following a wave of violent armed robberies. ...

Military police in Phnom Penh on Wednesday arrested a seventh suspect in the kidnapping of three Chinese men freed on Monday from their captors, who had detained them for two months in a bid to make them pay back loans with the help of their ...

A seemingly minor dispute between an Interior Ministry official and a village chief in Phnom Penh turned deadly when the official gunned down the village chief and his relative on Wednesday afternoon, according to police, who offered wildly different reports of the shooting. ...

With strong bipartisan support, the National Assembly on Wednesday passed the country’s first animal health and production law, which sets out rules for the humane treatment of livestock and the safe processing of animal meat. ...

A private English tutor in Battambang province has confessed to repeatedly molesting multiple female students as young as 6, following his arrest at the home of one of the girls on Tuesday, an official said on Wednesday. ...

A senior human rights monitor in Banteay Meanchey province was questioned on Wednesday by the provincial court over a street protest that took place on Monday, but his organization, Adhoc, is claiming that the court breached judicial procedure in getting him there. ...

The environmental NGO at the center of an extortion scandal in Siem Reap province has a track record of using its employees as racketeers in order to enrich itself, according to officials who have previously dealt with the organization. ...

Police chiefs in three provinces have been given an ultimatum from Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng – put a stop to armed robberies or step down. ...

A new set of standards for orphanages that the Ministry of Social Affairs plans to enforce over the coming months, combined with a global move toward community-based care, has at least one organization worried it will be forced to close down. ...

A protest leader was arrested during a demonstration on Monday morning outside Banteay Meanchey provincial police headquarters in Poipet City because authorities said the group of about 40 people did not have permission to protest. ...

Senate spokesman Mam Bun Neang issued a statement Monday describing as “shameful” the decision by the chamber’s 10 opposition senators to boycott the day’s vote in protest of the arrest warrant issued for opposition leader Sam Rainsy. ...

A U.S.-based Pentecostal ministry with an extensive network of “orphan homes” in Cambodia will be investigated by the Ministry of Social Affairs after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced at one of its centers in Kratie province, though the organization will be allowed three months to ...

Contractors that dodge requirements to register with the social security fund, leaving workers to foot their hospital bills alone, will start facing harsher legal penalties, the director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) said.  ...

When the Battambang Provincial Court last week handed down a 25-year prison sentence to Yem Chrin, an unlicensed medic blamed for spreading HIV to more than 280 residents of rural Roka commune, it likely failed to consider relevant medical evidence, according to interviews with doctors ...

Forty-six senators from the ruling CPP on Monday unanimously ap­proved the 2016 national budget and the telecommunications law in the absence of 10 boycotting senators from the opposition Sam Rain­sy Party (SRP), according to a press re­lease. ...

A lawyer for CNRP lawmakers Nhay Chamroeun and Kong Saphea, who were severely beaten on October 26 in front of the National Assembly, filed a new complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday asking that those arrested for the crime be charged with ...

The government’s Apsara authority will join forces with the Preah Vihear administration to establish a joint committee to prevent illegal logging and to manage state land in the protected areas around Koh Ker, officials said yesterday. ...

Dozens of activist monks rallied on Sunday at Wat Stung Meanchey to protest the pagoda’s decision to defrock a fellow monk for allegedly throwing Buddha statues into a dirty pond, claiming that he was framed because he is Khmer Krom and is known for supporting ...

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. ...

When 112 families gathered to demonstrate for four hours in front of the Ratanakkiri provincial court last Wednesday, most of their invective was directed toward the court itself, and toward someone they termed “a rich man from Phnom Penh,” a Mr. Heang Socheat, whom, they ...

Around 100 people upset over the installation of new electricity transmission towers by the national electricity company, Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), protested on Friday morning in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district to demand a halt in the placement of the towers, or suitable compensation, protesters and officials ...

Private utility companies that run their cables along overhead lines in central Phnom Penh will now have to bury them beneath the city’s streets, and pay to do so, City Hall announced on Friday.   ...

As expected, opposition leader Sam Rainsy failed to show up at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for a scheduled questioning date on Friday, as he remains abroad after being hit with a slew of criminal charges and an arrest warrant in recent weeks. ...

An Australian fugitive wanted by Thai authorities for the murder of a former Hells Angels member was arrested in Phnom Penh on Thurs­day and is being held by immigration police, officials said Friday. ...