Law and judiciary

Thirteen months after Cambodia’s largest ever haul of ivory was seized at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, the chief of customs on Wednesday appeared before the provincial court to answer questions about the case for the first time. ...

A university student who was arrested in Phnom Penh on Tuesday over a string of drunken hit-and-runs in his Lexus SUV said Thursday that he decided to end his rampage by crashing into the U.S. ambassador’s residence because he had hoped embassy security guards would ...

Tycoon Sok Rathorn, who was in the midst of a one-year prison sentence on fraud charges, was provisionally released from detention yesterday after a deal was struck in a separate case. ...

The last two opposition activists charged with inciting an “insurrection” during a protest of the 2013 general election were questioned yesterday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, as the lawyer of the accused aired hope that the court would not compile enough evidence to sentence ...

A weekslong strike by more than 2,000 workers from a Phnom Penh factory that supplies global fashion brand H&M ended Wednesday after unions scaled down their original demands and backed down over a condition that workers receive their full salaries for the strike period, representatives ...

A Cambodian senior police officer confirmed Wednesday that Chinese economic fugitive Sun Xin, 46, and a former cashier of the Beijing municipal bureau of press, had worked in a factory in west Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province for six years before being arrested and sent back ...

The director of the Mondolkiri provincial mines and energy department Tuesday identified the operators of an illegal gold mine that was shut down last week as Royal Cambodian Armed Forces officers. ...

A Bangkok-based regional law firm says it will expand to Cambodia in the coming weeks, despite the local bar association’s renewed drive to clamp down on foreign lawyers practising “illegally” in the country. Law firm Tilleke & Gibbins said it expected to enter the legal scene ...

An updated version of the draft Trade Union Law gives the Labor Ministry the power to suspend unions that “cooperate” or hold joint activities with groups the government deems to have caused economic sabotage or “damaged” the national interest, according to a copy of the ...

With the approval last week of a draft NGO law by Cambodia’s Council of Ministers, many pro-democracy and rights advocates say they should now have a chance to add their comments on the bill, before it goes to the National Assembly for debate. ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged a businessman yesterday after he was accused of cheating his business partner out of more than $30,000 in 2014. ...

An NGO umbrella group says it has seen a new, leaked copy of a controversial draft law that aims to regulate the country’s hundreds of non-government organizations—and that the latest version marks a significant step backward. ...

Armed Vietnamese soldiers on Monday tried to prevent more than 300 people led by CNRP lawmakers from visiting a disputed border area in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, a lawmaker and a rights worker said. ...

Police in Siem Reap province delayed sending seven suspects accused of running a ponzi scheme to court Monday on the order of a prosecutor, who said the director of the company behind the scheme would be appearing today to “guarantee them.” ...

At least two women and five men are in custody at Siem Reap provincial police headquarters amid allegations they ran an unlicensed investment firm. The arrests, which followed a Wednesday statement by the provincial governor warning citizens to be vigilant with their money, took place at ...

A handcart-puller who was knocked unconscious by military police during a May 26 protest in Poipet City—sparking an attack on the local customs office—on Friday filed a court complaint requesting $10,000 in compensation from his attackers, a rights monitor said Sunday. ...

Russian businessman Nikolai Doroshenko was released from prison in Sihanoukville over the weekend after the Supreme Court granted him bail due to his poor health, more than two months after he was jailed on charges related to a dispute with his recently deported investment partner, ...

The Cambodian government is trying to weather criticism over the lack of transparency concerning the proposed draft law on NGOs that is now in the hands of the National Assembly. But another important draft law regulating trade unions is being heavily criticized for violating international ...

Rights groups want Cambodia’s parliament to hold a consultation with civil society about a controversial draft law on nongovernmental organizations approved Friday by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which has long demonstrated animosity toward organizations outside of state control. ...

A controversial draft law to regulate Cambodia’s NGOs has passed a major hurdle and will be moved on to the National Assembly for legislative debate. Om Chandara, a spokesman for the council, told VOA Khmer that two articles were withdrawn at the behest of Prime ...

A monk who is a member of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF) – a dissident group branded a terrorist organisation by the government – was sentenced to seven years in prison yesterday on treason charges for distributing KNLF literature in Phnom Penh.​ ...

The Cambodian government has been taken to task in a lengthy report by Amnesty International for two years of “violent repression.” Researchers for the human rights organisation found that between Nov. 2013 and May of this year, people’s basic rights to assemble were stifled, excessive and ...

Cambodia is refusing protection for almost 100 Montagnard asylum seekers fleeing persecution in Vietnam as four refugees travel from Nauru to the impoverished nation under a controversial $55.5 million agreement with Australia. ...

Following the intervention of Indonesia’s ambassador to Cambodia last week, 10 Indonesian nationals left the country Sunday after being released by police in Kandal province, where they were being held over a $161,000 theft at a local casino, an embassy official said. ...