Legal and judicial system

A lawyer representing three of the 23 people arrested during garment strike clashes on January 2 and 3 hopes the capital’s court will drop charges against her clients when it hears their case on April 18, she said yesterday. ...

A government committee charged with assessing damage from the garment worker protests in December and January has put the value of the destruction at over $250,000. It places blame squarely on the opposition CNRP and a trio of union leaders. That committee’s report, released Thursday, ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced a former Banteay Meanchey provincial court clerk to two years in jail after finding him guilty on corruption and bribery charges brought by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). ...

Family members of two men slain by military police in violent suppression of a garment worker protest in January were questioned Wednesday at the Ministry of Interior, although the investigation into the killings was officially declared closed on March 16. Soun Nara, the brother of Yean ...

More than 50 land rights activists from two Phnom Penh communities filed a complaint Wednesday with police over an incident in which an unidentified man allegedly fired a shot at a bus transporting them from an anti-eviction protest in Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The city’s ...

An official with the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Tuesday that staff there were specifically instructed not to investigate allegations of large-scale bribery inside the Health Ministry so that the unit could settle the case out of court. On Sunday, ACU chief Om Yentieng told reporters ...

A case filed by a youth organiser against Prime Minister Hun Sen, in which the premier was accused of illegally ceding Cambodian territory to Vietnam, has been dropped by Phnom Penh Municipal Court. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of three people who were charged with fraudulently obtaining passports for four Cambodian women in an attempt to send them to China for marriage. ...

Judges are now required to write a reasoned explanation when placing citizens in pre-trial detention, instead of simply checking a box as was previously practiced, Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana said Tuesday. But the Ministry of Justice is also considering amending the criminal procedure code to ...

Moments after Prak Sovannary heard the Court of Appeal denied her husband’s request for bail, she sobbed over a speaker affixed to the top of a tuk-tuk, condemning the decision to about 150 supporters. “Release him! Release him!” said Sovannary, the wife of Independent Democracy of ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit revealed that a district police chief and his deputy in Kampot province who were arrested last week made more than $64,000 by embezzling money, taking bribes and stealing from his subordinates. Srun Lam, Banteay Meas district police chief, and his deputy, Mok Hort, ...

Three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a powerful land developer in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district on Monday rejected City Hall’s offer of new housing, saying the apartments being offered were far too small. They also said they planned to file a complaint ...

Twenty judges and prosecutors may soon find themselves pulling up stakes and tackling new jurisdictions, according to a draft list detailing a wide-ranging judicial reshuffling obtained by thePost yesterday. In the proposed shake-up, Phnom Penh Municipal Court president Chiv Keng will be moved into a position as ...

A union leader among 21 workers and activists arrested in January demonstrations will appear in the Court of Appeal to argue for bail next week, despite the same court denying his request last month. Vorn Pov, president of Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), and ...

The last of three draft laws written with the aim of cleaning up the courts establishes four new judicial chambers, but legal and political experts worry that it does little to loosen the grip of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Justice Ministry over the courts. The draft ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has finished an investigation into the shooting deaths of five protesting garment factory workers, and the wounding of more than 40 others, during a military police operation against stone-throwing strikers on January 3, Judge Phou Povsun said Sunday. “We had finished ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday heard the case of a woman charged with defaming mining magnate and RCAF Lieutenant General Nim Meng in relation to a land dispute in Preah Sihanouk province. Presiding Judge Kim Dany said that Sok Neang Gek was being charged ...

A lawyer hired by the opposition CNRP said Tuesday that he would file a complaint next month with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes against humanity allegedly perpetrated by state security forces. “We plan to file a Communication [complaint] before the International Criminal Court next ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) released a statement Tuesday in which Hor Sothoun, the eldest son of Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong, defended himself against complaints of nepotism, abuse of power and mishandling of overtime bonuses in his position as permanent secretary-general in his father’s ministry. The ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of a Banteay Meanchey court clerk accused of corruption and bribe-taking by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). In February last year, the ACU arrested 28-year-old Suong Sok Heng, a clerk for provincial prosecutor Phan Vanroath, after they ...

Three people, including a former court clerk, stood trial yesterday, accused of unlawfully using court positions to conduct threats and bribery in Banteay Manchey province last year. Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge Sous Sam Ath said former clerk at Banteay Meanchey provincial court Suong Sok ...

The long-awaited draft law on the Supreme Council of Magistracy continues the practice of secret votes and gives Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana key powers, according to excerpts from the document, but it would reduce the position of King Norodom Sihamoni if passed in its ...

Dozens of ethnic minority Kreung villagers protested outside the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court on Monday, demanding the release of a fellow Kreung man presently in pretrial detention for setting fire to a pile of wood on land the community sold in 2007 but claims it was ...

A representative for villagers living in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district who say that buyers from a local company failed to uphold a 2007 land deal has been charged and temporarily detained by local authorities for allegedly destroying private property. Haing Noeur, 50, was detained on Saturday after ...