Law and judiciary

Two former Cambodia Daily journalists have been charged with “incitement to commit a felony” over seemingly routine commune election coverage in Ratanakkiri. ...

About 5,000 people have been arrested for drug use and trafficking since July in the second phase of an ongoing controversial drug crackdown, bringing the total number of arrestees this year to almost 13,700 people. ...

​Even as he expressed condolences for the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday that left 59 people dead, Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared yesterday to suggest that the incident was a kind of cosmic rebuke following American warnings to its citizens about safety in ...

When Cambodia National Rescue Party President Kem Sokha stood arm-in-arm with three newly minted deputies earlier this year, the quartet seemed eager and ready to address the party’s next challenge at hand: critical commune elections that could greatly bolster grassroots support. ...

A former senior army official and head of the late Chea Sim’s bodyguard unit yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court to once again reduce his jail time for a raft of crimes including embezzlement, weapons possession, breach of trust and forgery. ...

The royalist Funcinpec party and the Cambodian Youth Party (CYP) have separately announced plans to file lawsuits to the Supreme Court to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party over charges against leader Kem Sokha of treason. ...

A senoir Justice Ministry official said a pilot project to increase bail approvals and community service sentencing for small-time offenders would be impossible, weeks after the project was announced during the visit of a United Nations human rights official. ...

Just two days after they first went up, some of the Cambodia National Rescue Party banners demanding the release of jailed party leader Kem Sokha are already coming down amid government objections. ...

The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled that the ongoing detention of opposition leader Kem Sokha was legal, despite claims his parliamentary immunity had been violated – and in spite of the fact that neither the accused nor his representatives were present. ...

Since the widely condemned arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha on “treason” charges this month, at least a dozen Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers have left the country, though a senior party official yesterday insisted they would “return soon”. ...

Cambodian authorities last week arrested an alleged drug mule attempting to smuggle cocaine into the Kingdom by hiding it in his stomach. 
South African national Blignaut Chan, 26, was seized on September 13 at Phnom Penh International Airport in a joint operation between the National ...

Jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha’s lawyers have said that they are under surveillance during meetings with their client in Tbong Khmum’s Trapaing Thlong prison, which they yesterday called a violation of their rights ensuring client-attorney conversations are confidential. ...

Two Mother Nature activists arrested after filming suspected sand-bearing vessels have been charged with incitement and making unauthorised recordings of a person in “a private place” – an offence that drew skepticism yesterday, given they were in their own boat in the open ocean when ...

Disgraced former Phnom Penh Municipal Police Chief Heng Pov yesterday called for a speedy appeal trial before the Supreme Court in two of his cases – which relate to the possession of fake currency and to the illegal detention of a suspect – despite lamenting ...

Cambodian politics reached a new boiling point with the arrest of the opposition leader last week. Kem Sokha was handcuffed in the middle of the night in his house and accused of “treason” by the government. ...

Material apparently aimed at incriminating jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha continued to flow in over the weekend, with pro-government leaker “Seiha” releasing another video of Sokha expressing his gratitude to the US government for its assistance in building democracy in Cambodia. ...

Cambodia Youth Party leader Pich Sros filed a lawsuit on Friday against activist monk But Buntenh and Pa Nguon Teang, founder of the Cambodian Centre for Independent Media, accusing the pair of embezzling money from the late Kem Ley’s funeral fund. ...

The Tax Department yesterday escalated its attack on the Cambodia Daily by filing a legal complaint accusing its founder and two directors of obstructing the tax process and tax evasion, which could see them face up to six years in prison. ...

Jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha was officially charged with treason yesterday, about 36 hours after he was arrested at his Phnom Penh residence and sent to a Tbong Khmum prison. If Sokha is found guilty, his party could be dissolved based on new legislation that prevents ...

The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a bail application for Poipet Commune Chief Chao Veasna, who has been in pretrial detention since February for his alleged role in a protest that turned violent outside the border town’s customs office in 2015. ...

Jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha was officially charged with treason this morning, about 36 hours after he was arrested from his Phnom Penh residence in a midnight raid by more than 100 police and sent to a Tbong Khmum prison. ...

Police yesterday arrested Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Kem Sokha over allegations of treason, with Prime Minister Hun Sen accusing the opposition president of conspiring with the United States to oust his regime. In a startling escalation in an already deteriorating political climate, the premier ...

Phnom Penh Governor Khoung Sreng has asked owners of container trucks, cement trucks and other heavily loaded vehicles to cease use of three main roads in the capital in a bid to ease congestion. ...

The Ministry of Interior has launched an investigation into the opposition CNRP’s funding sources after the government-aligned Fresh News website posted a leaked document purporting to show that the party received funds from a foreign organisation. ...