Crime and law enforcement

Some 900 plaintiffs have joined a class action suit against investment company Empire Big Capital, which is estimated to have defrauded tens of thousands of Cambodians out of up to $400 million, with more complainants expected to join the legal case in the coming weeks. ...

A task force to curb natural resources crimes has cracked down on an illegal mine in Kratie province and is proposing to fill it in after there were four deaths at the site last year. ...

Jailed ex-opposition figure Meach Sovannara has written a letter congratulating Prime Minister Hun Sen on his recent wedding anniversary in an apparent bid to secure a reduction in his 20-year prison term. ...

Official confiscated about 6 cubic metres of luxury timber in Preah Vihear’s Chey Sen district this week in two separate busts, also detaining eight for illegally transporting timber out of the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday threatened to fire Daun Penh District Governor Sok Penh Vuth over growing disregard for traffic laws among the public as local authorities scrambled to enforce a new crackdown on offenders. Hun Sen urged motorists to obey traffic laws, appealing specifically to ...

The 38-year-old former governor of Ratanakkiri province’s Banlung city was apprehended in Phnom Penh yesterday nearly six months after a warrant for his arrest was issued.Keng Sokunthea, deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s penal department, said his officials arrested Ouk Sam Ol in front of ...

According to a report by the National Police’s public order department, there was an increase in deaths and a decrease in injuries compared with the previous year. There were 1,717 deaths and 6,607 injuries reported in 2016. ...

Radio broadcaster and former Beehive Party President Mam Sonando was served a summons last week by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to appear as a witness in relation to a “treason” case filed against former opposition President Kem Sokha. ...

Daun Penh district authorities have ordered a group of Kandal market vendors to move in the hopes of reopening a street that has blocked vehicular traffic for many years. ...

The Appeal Court yesterday upheld a decision by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court earlier this month to deny bail for two former Radio Free Asia reporters accused of “espionage”, with the pair’s lawyer calling the decision unfair. ...

A trove of documents left behind by law enforcement officials at a recently shuttered cockfighting ring allegedly owned by the nephew-in-law of Hun Sen appears to show organised payments to police and government officials across Kandal province. ...

At least 2 hectares of flooded mangrove forest in Koh Kong’s Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary have been filled in with sand from illegal dredging nearby, with local authorities and an NGO yesterday claiming an unidentified “powerful” tycoon was behind the environmental crimes. ...

CPP lawmaker Sar Sokha has denied any involvement in the timber trade in Prey Veng province after a depot owner used his name and that of Prime Minister Hun Sen to threaten local journalists. ...

Police in Takeo province burned more than 6,300 marijuana plants on Saturday. Authorities discovered the illegal marijuana plantation in Kirivong district after villagers tipped off local police.  ...

Nearly 1,500 people died from traffic accidents in the Kingdom during the first 10 months of this year, a minor increase over last year, though the number of injured fell significantly, according to a report by the Ministry of Interior’s National Committee for Road Safety ...

A year after a local technology company introduced new software to combat financial crime in Cambodia, four banks have started using the system to fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, the company’s executive said yesterday. ...

Cambodia has asked the United States to delay the deportation of some of its citizens convicted of crimes in the US due to serious sicknesses and to wait until they get treatment. ...

A prominent Vietnamese timber trader was arrested and put in pre-trial detention for the second time this year after some two tonnes of rosewood allegedly connected to her were discovered in Oddar Meanchey province, authorities said yesterday. ...

Prey Veng province military police and the Wildlife Alliance on Friday night conducted a raid upon a truck transporting hundreds of kilograms of illegal wildlife destined for Vietnam. ...

Nearly 3,000 cases have been detected in a crackdown on fisheries and forest crime in the first nine months of this year.​ The results were in a Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery report published on Friday. ...

National Police statistics yesterday showed an 11 percent increase in road traffic deaths in the first nine months of the year but a small decrease in injuries. ...

About 5,000 people have been arrested for drug use and trafficking since July in the second phase of an ongoing controversial drug crackdown, bringing the total number of arrestees this year to almost 13,700 people. ...

​Even as he expressed condolences for the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday that left 59 people dead, Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared yesterday to suggest that the incident was a kind of cosmic rebuke following American warnings to its citizens about safety in ...

A former senior army official and head of the late Chea Sim’s bodyguard unit yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court to once again reduce his jail time for a raft of crimes including embezzlement, weapons possession, breach of trust and forgery. ...