Law and judiciary

The Ministry of Interior yesterday ordered all prisons across the country to release inmates scheduled to be freed on weekends and public holidays ahead of time rather than prolonging their sentence. ...

Pech Prum Mony, a one-star military general and former bodyguard for disgraced Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei, on Thursday denied accusations of abuse of power and interfering with judicial procedure while under questioning at the court, his lawyer said. ...

More than 400 employees of a curtain factory in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City were on strike for the eighth day Thursday over alleged labor abuses and unmet demands, a day after some of the workers lobbed rocks at the building, causing thousands of dollars ...

The announcement last month that traffic cops will collect 70 per cent of fines they give out has already seen enforcement increase, according to a senior official at the Interior Ministry.Speaking yesterday, General Run Roth Veasna, director of the ministry’s Department of Order, said tickets ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry is looking into a Thai media report that seven Cambodian illegal loggers were involved in a gunfight with Thai soldiers Thursday that culminated in one Cambodian suffering serious injuries and all of the suspects being arrested, a ministry spokesman said. ...

Disgraced former Phnom Penh Municipal Court president Ang Maltey, his ex-right-hand man and the mother of tycoon Tong Sarath may face new charges over an alleged pay-off in February to grant the latter and her husband bail amid a manhunt for their son.Phnom Penh Municipal ...

The Ministry of Environment today held a workshop to collect inputs from all stakeholders for drafting the environmental code for orienting Cambodia in walking in the right way, and reflecting the people’ need. ...

Not long ago, Sim Pov, a representative of 69 families from Kratie province, came to Phnom Penh to meet with urban housing rights protesters. He wanted to learn from them how he could organize his own community, which is locked in a land dispute with ...

Dozens of people protested outside of the provincial prison in Koh Kong on Wednesday demanding the release of three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature who were charged on Monday with threatening destruction, a rights worker and police said. ...

The imprisoned mother of jailed tycoon Thong Sarath has been questioned at Phnom Penh Municipal Court over an alleged bribe she and her husband paid to recently arrested ex-court chief Ang Maltey to secure their release on bail, a court official said. ...

A defrocked monk arrested in Phnom Penh earlier this month for the alleged possession of weapons, fake documents and crystal methamphetamine told the municipal court Wednesday that he and a fellow defendant never possessed any of the contraband. ...

Military police in Phnom Penh arrested 26 people aged between 20 and 30 on Tuesday in two consecutive raids on a methamphetamine-ridden slum in Sen Sok district’s Toek Thla commune, according to district military police commander Prum Sakda. ...

The government yesterday rebutted allegations that the arrest of Senator Hong Sok Hour was politically motivated, reiterating that the issue was a legal matter, not a political one. ...

After nearly a year of dry taps, the water supply at Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison has finally been restored, but inmates are still being forced to pay for the so-called luxury commodity, according to those who live and work there. ...

A Koh Kong provincial judge on Wednesday questioned three activists who were arrested late Monday—not in the courtroom, but in the prison where they are being held. ...

Information minister Khieu Kanharith said the law on Access to Information has been drafted to serve not only the journalists, but it’s for all Cambodians as well as foreigners working and doing business in Cambodia. ...

While there are many issues for Cambodia’s journalists to cover these days—from the tensions with Vietnam over border issues to land disputes, the law to regulate NGOs, the labor sector and others—the country’s reporters are often disrupted from their work. ...

Who killed 24-year-old Chhun Kim at an Internet shop run by her family? This was the question left hanging at the end of a hearing at the Court of First Instance yesterday, where 22-year-old portrait sketcher Dang Sopheak was on trial for her murder. ...

Officials from the Council of Ministers and the Justice Ministry will meet today to discuss the arrest of former opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour. ...

Military police in Stung Treng province on Monday arrested a Laotian man with a half-kilogram of crystal methamphetamine he had smuggled into the country, an official said Tuesday. ...

Two men were detained, fined and released Monday morning in Siem Reap province for attempting to transport 100,000 newly hatched snakehead fish from the Vietnamese border to sell to fish farmers, officials said Tuesday. ...

Seven Nigerian men who stand charged with drug trafficking denied any involvement in an alleged methamphetamine ring during the second day of their trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday, a month after an eighth man admitted to acting as a courier. ...

Activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature caused more than $100,000 in damages to a company that was legally dredging for sand in Koh Kong province, Khem Sameth, CEO of the company Direct Access, said yesterday. ...

The seven opposition CNRP lawmakers charged last year with “leading an insurrection” could be arrested and imprisoned in the same way that opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour was arrested and imprisoned over the weekend, Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin said Tuesday. ...