Law and judiciary

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. ...

The Ministry of the National Assembly-Senate Relation and Inspection today held a meeting at Cambodiana hotel, discussing on a new draft law on inspection before sending to the Council of Ministers. ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court on Monday imprisoned three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature after a prosecutor charged them with threatening to cause damage during their ongoing campaign against a company accused of illegally dredging at a local estuary, according to rights group Licadho. ...

Disgraced former Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei was sent to the Kandal Provincial Prison on Sunday after he was charged with embezzlement for allegedly confiscating an SUV from a drug dealer and giving it to his son, a prison official said Monday. ...

Cambodia’s former deputy consul-general to Ho Chi Minh City denied forging a document to help a private company smuggle luxury-grade wood into Vietnam during the first day of his trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday. ...