Law and judiciary

The government will eliminate taxes on vehicles used by low-income families and farmers to improve their livelihoods and boost farm production, according to the bill on the national budget approved by Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday. ...

Pheng Vannak, an Interior Ministry officer accused of making a death threat against CNRP Deputy President Kem Sokha, has been removed from his position and will face trial over defamation allegations, the ministry’s spokesman said Wednesday. ...

Two garment workers who broke away from the only union operating at their factory in Kompong Speu province in an attempt to provide workers an alternate choice for representation were charged Wednesday with a slew of crimes and are being held in provisional detention, officials ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit on Tuesday published a complaint against the director of the Prey Sar correctional centre for women and children (CC2), alleging that he took bribes from prisoners and families and illegally pocketed government funds. ...

The Cambodian government has extended the deadline for the deportation of 13 ethnic Montagnard Christians who have obtained refugee status in the Southeast Asian nation if they do not find a third country in which to permanently settle by next January, prompting criticism from a ...

Angry at a new Facebook post by an opposition party spokesman and another CNRP lawmaker’s mention of the 1980s government’s deadly “K5 Plan,” Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday used the floor of the National Assembly to warn opposition lawmakers to be more civil. ...

The Court of Appeal yesterday heard the case of three organ traffickers convicted of convincing relatives to travel to Thailand to have their kidneys sold between 2012 and 2014. ...

An unlicensed health worker charged in Cambodia with causing a mass HIV infection by treating patients with reused needles said on Tuesday that he had always sterilized needles before using them and has no idea how the infection was spread. ...

Almost 100 opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) supporters and several dozen members of the Royalist Funcinpec Party in Svay Chek district, Banteay Meanchey province, defected yesterday to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Among them were provincial and village-level leaders. ...

Twenty-nine loggers were sent back to Cambodia from Thailand on Sunday after the group was arrested by Thai soldiers while logging rosewood across the border from Banteay Meanchey province, an official said Monday. ...

A representative of 18 vendors in Sihanoukville asked the government for help in reviving the area where they used to live and work, claiming that the half-finished construction sites destroyed the area and any businesses operating there.  ...

Two Chinese nationals were arrested and 72 others were temporarily detained on Friday in a series of coordinated raids carried out by the Interior Ministry to dismantle a suspected cybercrime ring run by Chinese citizens extorting people in their home country, officials said. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has issued an appeal for government officials to strengthen cooperation to prevent and combat the rampant smuggling of goods in and out of the country, causing the loss of much-needed tax revenue.   ...

Oddar Meanchey provincial police chief Men Ly said yesterday he will launch an investigation into the burning of an opposition CNRP sign during a protest in Samraong City on Friday led by a defector to the ruling CPP. ...

The trial of an unlicensed medic who was charged with murder af­ter allegedly infecting more than 270 people with HIV will begin on Tuesday, a court official said on Fri­day. ...

The Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) will hold its eighth election today at its headquarters in Sen Sok district. ...

An Information Ministry official has been charged with defamation over a Facebook post accusing a CPP senator of being the mistress of a military general, and has been summoned to trial on Monday. ...

An unlicensed health worker charged in Cambodia with murder and other crimes after allegedly causing a mass HIV infection by treating patients with reused needles will be brought to trial next week, sources said. ...

Police in Svay Rieng province said Wednesday that they were still searching for one of two men suspected in a violent attack on an elderly commune chief that stemmed from a drunken fight on Saturday. ...

A new law on the collection and dissemination of statistical data is set to be put to a vote at the National Assembly later this year after being approved by a parliamentary commission Wednesday. ...

Despite Prime Minister Hun Sen’s request for bus owners and cab drivers to not hike prices over the Pchum Ben holiday, passengers were subjected to a familiar price bump this week. ...

The Geneva-based Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders has appealed to the public to urge Cambodian authorities to end their “judicial harassment” of prominent human rights advocate Ny Chakrya, who stands charged with public defamation and attempting to coerce court officials. ...

The number of traffic fatalities during the 2015 Pchum Ben festival was nearly the same as last year’s, dropping just three percent.34 people were killed in road crashes between October 10 and 12, one fewer than the 35 killed during the three-day holiday in 2014. ...

Philippe Broaly, the former French judge and child-protection NGO director who was convicted in May for sexually assaulting boys in his care, had his sentence extended to three years by the Appeal Court on Friday, according to anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE). ...