New Judge Appointed to Keat Kolney Land Dispute Case

5 October 2012
The Cambodia Daily
Agricultural production / Agriculture and fishing / Economic land concessions and plantations / Ethnic minorities and indigenous people / Judiciary and courts / Land / Land tenure and land titling / Public land lease / Social development
court officials / court system / courts / econoic land concessions / ethnic Jarai families / ethnic minorities / Finance Minister Keat Chhon / Government officials / Jarai minority / Judge Lou Sou Sambath / Judge Luch Lao / judicial system / Keat Kolney / land disputes / Ratanakkiri provincial court / rubber / rubber plantations

The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court will appoint a new judge to process complaints filed by ethnic Jarai minority villagers against a firm owned by Keat Kolney, the sister of Finance Minister Keat Chhon, regarding a land dispute that has now dragged on for more than five years. Sixty-five Jarai families filed a complaint with the provincial court in 2007 alleging that Ms. Kolney’s firm fraudulently obtained 450 hectares of their land in O’Yadaw district’s Kong Yu village, 250 hectares of which have now been planted with rubber trees. Judge Lou Sou Sambath, Ratanakkiri Provincial Court president, said yesterday that Judge Luch Lao will be tasked with settling the dispute, bringing to five the number of judges who have been appointed to the long-stalled case. …