Law and judiciary

A report based on interviews with 54 children has exposed critical failings in Cambodia’s judicial system, recounting stories of unpleasant experiences in the presence of police, doctors and court rooms. UNICEF and Hagar, a child rights NGO based in Cambodia, released Wednesday “A System Just for ...

Officials are investigating Preah Sihanouk Provincial Hospital after anonymous complaints were put forward against its director, accusing him of corruption and a lack of transparency. According to anonymous letters written by doctors and nurses in the hospital and widely disseminated, hospital director Seng Nong has been ...

A woman who allegedly presented herself as both a relative of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the sister of logging magnate Try Pheap was arrested by military police in Poipet town on Monday on suspicion of fraud, provincial military police commander Or Borith said yesterday. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that phones, iPads and other possessions confiscated from six opposition lawmakers during the violent July 15 protest at Freedom Park would not yet be returned. Presiding judge Yos Sokhoeun said that the items could not be returned based on the ...

The Court of Appeal on Monday upheld the protest-related convictions handed down to 11 activists in November, but reduced the prison sentences of all but the most high-profile members of the group. Seven of the defendants were arrested in mid-November for blocking traffic during a ...

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is overhauling his nation’s overseas adoption system and wants to get Cambodia involved in the process, according to Australian media. Abbott requested Attorney General George Brandis pursue fresh agreements and adoption negotiations, including with Cambodia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Kenya, the Sunday ...

Villagers in Koh Kong province were sent back to the drawing board yesterday, when the Court of Appeal upheld the provincial court’s decision that about 62 hectares of land belongs to Heng Huy Co. ...

Military police in Kompong Speu province on Friday arrested eight men for attempting to rob a parked container truck full of undergarments from a Phnom Penh factory, but released six of the suspects the same day, officials said Sunday. Hong Vinol, director of the military ...

An overwhelming 96 per cent of Cambodians want the government to take measures to reduce alcohol consumption, a Royal University of Phnom Penh survey has found. The survey released yesterday of 2,104 adults in four provinces also found 93 per cent want the government to ban ...

On the 11th anniversary of labour leader Chea Vichea’s assassination yesterday, about 200 people attended a memorial service as many continued to call on authorities to find and arrest those responsible for Vichea’s 2004 murder. Opposition party leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha, along with the ...

A Kampong Cham Provincial Court summons over a protest shocked a former local union president and his wife yesterday, since the event in question occurred more than a year ago and the union leader’s wife had no involvement in it. ...

Four inmates at Kompong Speu’s provincial prison attacked a guard on Wednesday, repeatedly punching him in the face, an official said Thursday. ...

An Appeal Court judge yesterday said that seven female Boeung Kak land activists imprisoned in November for protesting on Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh were not actually blocking traffic at the time of their arrest. Eleven activists – the seven women arrested on November 10 and ...

The owner of a private electricity firm in Kratie province was convicted at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for paying $70,000 owed to a senior police officer and “land businessman” with a cheque that bounced. ...

As 10 land-rights activists and a monk prepare to take their appeal against one-year prison terms to the Appeal Court today, rights groups yesterday called for an end to government influence over the judiciary. “It’s time for Cambodia’s courts to act professionally and independently from the ...

Municipal anti-human trafficking police arrested three suspects in the past two days for allegedly sending at least four Cambodian women to marry men in China over the past year. Municipal anti-human trafficking police chief Keo Thea said one of the four Cambodian women sent to China ...

A day after the Appeal Court denied bail to the parents of fugitive defense ministry official Thong Sarath, municipal police and court officials Wednesday searched three residences belonging to the family and seized three AK-47 rifles at one of the homes.​ ...

Abuse, discrimination, exploitation and corruption are endemic in Cambodia’s prisons, spurred on by judicial and penal systems “driven by nepotism”, according to a new report from local rights group Licadho. The report, Rights at a Price: Life Inside Cambodia’s Prisons, which was released yesterday, details a ...

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday denied bail for the parents of a senior Ministry of Defense official who remains on the run over allegations that he orchestrated the assassination of a wealthy businessman in November. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged Major General Thong Sarath ...

Police have warned coffee lovers there could be a couple of bad batches circulating and percolating in Phnom Penh after a raid on a fake coffee enterprise in Sen Sok district’s Khmuonh commune yesterday. Officers arrested four men during the joint operation in Banlar Sa Et ...

King Norodom Sihamoni yesterday shook up the composition of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, officially instituting seven new members to the body overseeing the nation’s judiciary, while also disbarring one former prosecutor.​ ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday accused the CNRP of violating the “culture of dialogue” that he and the opposition agreed to last year, and warned seven lawmakers charged with incitement and insurrection that their parliamentary immunity would not save them from prison. The seven CNRP ...

The Phnom Penh municipal government on Monday rejected a request from protesters to stage a one-month demonstration in the city’s Freedom Park for the release of 10 jailed activists and refused to receive their latest petition demanding a solution to their long-running land disputes. About 100 ...

Civil society leaders on Sunday called on the country’s two major political parties to scrap plans to ban them from giving media interviews during election campaigns and from issuing statements that “insult” any party. CPP Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin and senior CNRP official Kuoy Bunroeun, ...