Law and judiciary

Two convicted Cambodian-American fraudsters were named among five shareholders, including Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana, in a shadowy offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands in the latest trove of “Panama Papers,” which were released on Tuesday.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has signed a sub-decree to mark 18 protected areas over nearly three million hectares of land across Prey Lang forest, according to a Ministry of Environment statement released yesterday. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday retracted an order to use all illegally logged wood seized by the government to build schools and housing for teachers, arguing that they would struggle to carry the wood out of the forest.   ...

Cambodia’s ambassador to Australia yesterday swiftly denied allegations of corruption amid reports the embassy is under investigation for links to an alleged alcohol and tobacco black market that took in roughly $200,000.   ...

A special economic zone developer will be allowed to continue bulldozing a mangrove forest in Preah Sihanouk province’s Teuk Thla commune, the provincial governor said yesterday.   ...

Nine local journalists were arrested yesterday morning in Preah Vihear province’s Koulen district over allegations they threatened to write about local villagers who were transporting illegal timber unless they handed over cash, according to officials.    ...

Eight human rights officers and activists clad in black were arrested on Monday during “Black Monday” protests in Phnom Penh, the first in a campaign to free four fellow rights workers and an election official who were jailed late last month on charges widely believed ...

More than a month has elapsed since the government vowed to strengthen its borders to halt illegal imports of rice, yet little has been done to stem the flow of illicit rice shipments flooding into Cambodia from its foreign neighbours and undermining the export efforts ...

An official at the Council for the Development of Cambodia was charged with bribery over the weekend after being arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), just weeks after the graft-fighting body arrested a Foreign Affairs Ministry official and the ambassador to South Korea.   ...

Two Ratanakkiri Referral Hospital officials have been ousted from their posts following an audit that found that more than $13,000 from the hospital’s travel allowance account was mismanaged, causing the hospital to run out of money to pay staff. ...

The ruling CPP’s defamation case against prominent political analyst Ou Virak moved forward on Friday as the Phnom Penh Municipal Court questioned party spokesman Sok Eysan. ...

Cambodian’s prison libraries are set to receive an extra $600,000 in funding from the French Agency for Development and literacy NGO Sipar, according to a statement released yesterday. ...

The Justice Ministry on Thursday rejected the opposition CNRP’s argument for refusing to be questioned by prosecutors over party Vice President Kem Sokha’s sex scandal, calling its claims of unconstitutional behavior “slander.” ...

Furious investors who claim they were cheated out of thousands of dollars by a now defunct financial firm that directed them to buy stock in a Hong Kong-based ponzi scheme set up camp in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house on Thursday, imploring him ...

The European Union (EU) has called on the government to release the Adhoc, National Election Committee and United Nations officials who have been charged and imprisoned over the sex scandal involving acting opposition party president Kem Sokha. ...

At least 78 trucks carrying mining materials including gravel, sand and soil were stopped on National Road 3 by traffic police on Tuesday in cooperation with Mining Ministry officials. ...

Soldiers allegedly protecting an illegal logging operation in Oddar Meanchey threatened to shoot a group of forest patrollers that stumbled across their logging site on Sunday, Rattanak Rokha community forest patrol leader Chea Chuong said yesterday, though an RCAF commander denied the account. ...

Citizens in two communes in Svay Rieng and another in Prey Veng yesterday protested their high power bills after a local electric company failed to lower its price to 800 riel per kilowatt-hour as promised.   ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) decided yesterday that it would not attempt to intervene on behalf of its deputy secretary-general, who was jailed on bribery charges on Monday in connection with the government’s probe of a sex scandal involving opposition leader Kem Sokha. ...

With the screws tightening on Adhoc, pro-government NGOs are calling for the government to use the newly enacted NGO Law to punish the rights group and other organisations caught up in the Kem Sokha mistress scandal using a provision that can be used to shut ...

Four senior officers from local rights group Adhoc and a former officer who now works for the National Election Committee (NEC) were imprisoned on Monday on bribery charges over a sex scandal involving deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha. ...

Phnom Penh City Hall has rejected a request for two large-scale Labor Day marches on Sunday, but the unionists who have organized the demonstrations say they will proceed as planned.     ...

Four senior officials of local rights group Adhoc and a Na­tion­al Election Committee (NEC) official were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Thurs­day night over allegations that they instructed an alleged mistress of deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha to deny their affair. ...

Cambodia does not have any new agreements regarding the South China Sea (East Sea) issue with China, the country’s Secretary of State and Spokesman for the Council of Ministers, Phay Siphan, has said.​ ...