Law and judiciary

The Cambodian government on Friday approved a new regulation that will impose fines for public smoking. ...

With the draft union law due to be debated during a public forum on Wednesday, a group of 21 unions and NGOs released a statement yesterday calling on the National Assembly to allow more time to discuss the legislation before it is passed.  ...

Although they remain publicly unnamed, nine businessmen in the timber industry were summoned to appear at the Tbong Khmum provincial court today for alleged deforestation crimes and illegal business dealings, according to officials. ...

Police burned nearly 45,000 marijuana plants growing on public forest land in Takeo province on Tuesday and Wednesday after they were tipped off by local villagers, police said Thursday. ...

A prominent anti-dam activist in Koh Kong province who has been jailed since October was convicted Thursday of illegal logging and given a suspended prison sentence, allowing him to walk free but leaving the shadow of a criminal conviction hanging over him. ...

A man arrested over the weekend allegedly in possession of more than 3 kilograms of meth and more than 100,000 yama tablets has been linked to a drug-trafficking network operating out of Prey Sar prison, according to a police report made public yesterday. ...

Thirteen land-rights activists from the Boeng Kak neighborhood appeared Wednesday at the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh for a final appeal in a yearslong legal battle over a protest-related conviction. ...

More than 100 Chinese nationals believed to be wanted for crimes in their home country were arrested on Wednesday at a CPP senator’s casino in Poipet City, which had to be shut down during the operation, police said. ...

A high-speed collision in Preah Sihanouk province involving two container trucks, a beer truck and a van crammed with garment workers resulted in one death and 34 injuries on Tuesday evening, according to police, who reported that three drivers fled the scene and remain at ...

A public consultation session on the controversial draft union law will be held at the National Assembly next Wednesday, officials confirmed yesterday.  ...

A boss at a garment factory in Kampong Chhnang province has accused the husband and a friend of a recently fired employee of chasing down her car and trying to kill her.   ...

Amid a staunch defence of the performance of a newly formed illegal logging committee’s recent crackdown and remarks on concerns over gun control, National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha took time out to address his now infamous year-old comments on Adolf Hitler yesterday at the ...

About 70 residents from a village in Siem Reap’s Ampil commune yesterday submitted a petition to provincial officials requesting that they not be switched to the authority of neighbouring Nokor Thom commune, though at least one local official claimed the matter was long decided. ...

Forestry crimes fell by around 9 percent last year compared to 2014, according to an annual report released by the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday. ...

Kratie’s provincial authorities on Friday gave an ultimatum to over 100 families living in Damrei Phong commune in Chhloung district, telling them to get off their land or face legal action.   ...

Opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour, who has been in prison since August on incitement and fraud charges, had his request for bail on health grounds heard by the Supreme Court on Friday. ...

Though Cambodia’s access to information law has been in the works for over a decade, participants at a seminar on the law yesterday said that they’re optimistic that the time is finally right for it to actually come to fruition. ...

The relaxing of trade restrictions in Southeast Asian countries has also increased the flow of illegal drugs into the region, according to a report released by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime on Thursday. ...

Environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson made a direct ap­peal to Prime Minister Hun Sen via Facebook on Wednesday for help se­curing a visa to return to Cambodia to attend his pending trial for aiding a trio of fellow activists. ...

About 500 people gathered outside Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison on Tuesday to demand the release of form­er Capitol Tours bus driver Nan Vanna and la­bor activist Ros Si­phay, who were arrested two weeks ago for participating in a demonstration against the company. ...

More than a month has passed since National Anti-Deforestation Committee (NADC) named the people it suspects of profiting from the trade in illegal timber, but not a single arrest warrant or court summons has been issued since. As perpetrators continue to go unpunished, the illegal ...

Mobile SIM card sales slowed to a crawl in 2015 while the number of new subscribers using mobile internet services leaped by 30 per cent, according to a Ministry of Telecommunications factsheet. ...

The provincial court in Tbong Khmum province has charged four inmates with selling drugs in Trapaing Phlong prison after police found a bottle of methamphetamine pills hidden in the prison farm. ...

Nine families who lost their farmland to an under-construction special economic zone (SEZ) in Koh Kong province filed a complaint with the provincial government on Friday seeking to have the land excised from the industrial park and returned to them. ...