One Year After Journalist’s Slaying, Still No Justice in Sight
One year ago today, Hang Serei Odom, a journalist in Ratanakkiri province, received a fateful phone call. After telling his wife he was going to meet a military police officer, he bid her goodnight. He left his house in Banlung City at about 7 p.m. and never returned. Two days later, the body of the journalist was found stuffed in the trunk of his Toyota Camry, which was abandoned in a cashew plantation in O’Chum district. His head and face had been hacked open with an ax. Before his disappearance, the journalist had written for the Virakchun Khmer Daily connecting local military police officials to the illegal logging trade. … An Bunheng, a military police captain, and his wife Sim Vy, were arrested the same week that Hang Serei Odom’s body was found. A pair of the victim’s shoes were found in a restaurant that the couple own and a blanket with what was initially thought to have blood on it was found inside their house. Last month, the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court cleared the two of all charges and released them, citing a lack of evidence linking them to the brutal murder. … Adhoc’s Mr. Thy, who has been closely monitoring the case, criticized the court for not investigating the case properly. … The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the Ratanakkiri court’s decision was a worrying trend of “impunity in media murders.” Hang Serei Odom is the 11th journalist to be murdered in Cambodia since 1994. None of the 11 cases have ever led to a prosecution. … “The failure to find and convict the killers of journalist Hang Serei Odom one year after his murder speaks to the low priority Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government places on protecting the press,” Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative, said Sunday in an email. “Cambodia’s courts are notorious for their political pliability and it’s notable that one of the acquitted suspects was a military police officer,” Mr. Crispin said. …
Aun Pheap and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/one-year-after-journalists-slaying-still-no-justice-in%E2%80%88sight-41907/
