Judge Denies Coercion Claim in Land Dispute Assault Case

A father whose three children were badly beaten by employees of a rubber plantation has accused a Ratanakkiri Provincial Court judge of threatening to send two sons, aged 14 and 21, to jail unless they accept $1,000 in compensation and drop the assault complaint. Ry Saron is attempting to sue the plantation owner DM Group, for $40,000 for the May 5 beating that company employees inflicted with wood and metal poles on his three children and a neighbor. The four were attempting to stop rubber plantation workers from clearing the land claimed by their families when they were beaten. ... Mr. Saron also alleged that Judge [Eng] Champnap threatened to charge his sons and his neighbor’s son with attacking the plantation workers, thus turning them into the perpetrators and not the victims of the assault. ... Under duress, Mr Saron said he agreed to thumbprint a statement, two lines of which he kept blank at the bottom, which Judge Champnap subsequently filled in himself stating that Mr. Saron had agreed to accept the $1,000. “The judge said, “your sons will not be charged and the four workers will be also released,” he said. ... DM Group has been locked in land disputes for years. Last year, Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Second Lieutenant Sin Vanny, 50, was arrested for shooting and injuring a 20-year old villager who was riding a motor cycle across land at the center of a separate long running land dispute between ethnic minority villagers and the rubber plantation. Lt. Vanny was moonlighting at the time as a security guard for DM Group in Lumphat district. ...

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/judge-denies-coercion-claim-in-assault-case-26546/