Law and judiciary

Seventeen ethnic Montagnard Christians who fled Vietnam earlier this year to seek refuge from alleged persecution voluntarily returned home on Tuesday, discouraged after waiting for more than three months to be granted refugee status, a rights advocate and United Nations spokesperson said. ...

More than 100 prisoners in Cambodia have received royal pardons and hundreds more have seen their sentences reduced under King Norodom Sihamoni’s traditional Water Festival clemency, a local English newspaper reported Wednesday. ...

The former right-hand man of disgraced Phnom Penh Municipal Court president Ang Maltey, convicted on Friday of meddling in a court investigation, has been slapped with a new charge that could extend his stay behind bars. ...

A commune chief in Takeo has taken responsibility for producing a birth certificate that incorrectly lists the southern Cambodian province as being in Vietnam, but claimed he had made an honest mistake, officials said, adding that he would not face punishment. ...

Pich Prumhmony, the former aide of disgraced Phnom Penh court president Ang Maltey, was convicted of meddling in a court investigation on Friday, but is slated to be released from prison on December 19. ...

Trade unions are proposing a new committee to monitor the country’s social fund for injured workers, pension program for civil servants and health care for the poor in a bid to improve and expand coverage. ...

Three people were provisionally charged by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Sunday for smuggling 1 kg of heroin, police said, as officers continued searching for a Vietnamese couple they believe to be the ringleaders of the operation. ...

Security will be tightened in Cambodia during the visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev from Nov. 22 to 24, the National Police’s website reported on Saturday. ...

Heads of state from nearly 80 countries are heading to Paris (November 30-December 11) to craft a global climate change agreement. The new accord will replace the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change that expired in 2012. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday questioned two members of the Free Trade Un­ion (FTU) over a complaint filed against them for attacking members of another union during pro­tests at a factory in June, a unionist said. ...

Senior opposition officials met with party president Sam Rainsy in Manila yesterday, even as the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued a fresh summons to the embattled opposition leader calling him for questioning in apparent connection with the case of jailed Sam Rainsy Party Senator Hong ...

The International Criminal Court in the Hague has issued a statement acknowledging the work of civil society organizations in helping maintain international standards of justice. In 2014 and the first quarter of 2015, some 60,000 people were affected by land grabs, according to a report ...

Cambodia’s foreign minister defended the country’s judiciary before a group of diplomats Thursday, addressing an arrest warrant issued last week for opposition leader Sam Rainsy. ...

The Interior Ministry is searching for a man who posted a doctored birth certificate to Facebook that lists his birthplace as Takeo province, Vietnam—reasoning that the suspect had “poisoned the environment,” officials said on Thursday. ...

The governor of Ratanakkiri’s Banlung town was sued on Wednesday by a local resident and army veteran for allegedly seizing construction materials and violating private property rights without a court warrant. ...

Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, for whom an arrest warrant was issued last week, will not be returning to Phnom Penh until a deal is struck to secure his freedom. ...

Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong on Thursday dismissed claims that a court decision to issue an arrest warrant for Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) President Sam Rainsy was politically motivated and said his lawyer had acted alone in pursuing a defamation case against the opposition ...

A group of 15 Cambodians was arrested in Thailand on Tuesday for illegal logging in the country’s Sa Kaeo province, a Cambodian official said on Wednesday. ...

The trial of a British entrepreneur accused of fraud was delayed again at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday, while the defendant alleged he received an offer to buy his freedom for $1 million. ...

The cabs of 52 container trucks deemed unfit for the road were destroyed on Wednesday morning after being found among shipments of other vehicles at the Stung Hav Special Economic Zone and Port in Preah Sihanouk province, officials said. ...

Cambodia’s opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, is accusing the ruling party of carrying out a constitutional coup after a local court issued an arrest warrant for him and a parliamentary committee stripped him of his seat. In a message published on Facebook, the politician said the ...

Social media is on the rise in Cambodia, and it may just mark the beginning of the end of the systemic culture of judicial impunity, as well as the long-dysfunctional democratic system. ...

Phnom Penh Municipal Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of a prominent activist and former monk currently living in self-imposed exile who it says has been found guilty of forging public documents and wearing monks’ robes after being defrocked. ...

Cambodia must work to close the skills gap between its labor force and the domestic job market in order to maintain its economic growth, according to a report released on Monday by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labor Organization. ...