Law and judiciary

In spite of international laws and Cambodia’s own legal code, pre-trial detention in the country is becoming more prevalent among child offenders than adults, according to data compiled by a trial monitoring project. The notes are compiled from trial monitoring of 2,558 cases from 2009 ...

Media experts are asking the government to consider granting citizen journalists the same safeguards as professional journalists under Cambodia’s Press Law. ...

The wife of political activist Ouk Pich Samnang, who was charged with intentional violence and causing damage to public property after smashing his tuk-tuk through a barricade during a protest in Phnom Penh last week, said Monday she felt the opposition CNRP had “turned a ...

A senior police official said Monday that the leader of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), 10 members of which were charged Sunday with plotting to incite violence, was once part of the Tiger Head movement, another supposed terrorist organization. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned two prominent union leaders for questioning on Friday over charges that they incited violence and property damage at a garment worker protest in Phnom Penh in January during which military police fatally shot at least five people. ...

Anti-drug police officers arrested nine foreign nationals in a sting on a rental house on Sunday, accusing the men of involvement in a drug-trafficking ring catering to other foreigners in the vicinity of Phnom Penh’s Central Market, police said yesterday. ...

A former chief security guard at the Roo Hsing Garment Co factory was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison for conspiring with two thieves to steal more than 1,000 items of clothing from the factory in April. ...

The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Monday released five of the 10 people who were arrested Saturday after clashes between police and about 1,000 sacked workers from the Taiwanese-owned Juhui Footwear factory. The protest on Saturday turned violent when Juhui Footwear administrative director Teng Sambath ...

Dozens of taxi drivers in Poipet City protested Monday against the creation of a new checkpoint where they are forced to pay costly bribes to transport goods that have been smuggled across the border from Thailand. ...

The seven-inch scar runs diagonally across the left flank of his skinny torso, a glaring reminder of an operation he hoped would save his family from debt but instead plunged him into shame. But on discovering the broker earned US$10,000 for each kidney they sacrificed, ...

Dissatisfied by wages at home, thousands of Cambodians have been lured to Malaysia by the promise of bigger pay cheques, but while many have found themselves subjected to long hours, unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions and even physical abuse, they have – until now – ...

Ten tonnes of protected rosewood found stashed in a tanker truck bearing the logo of petroleum giant Sokimex was seized by police in Oddar Meanchey province on Friday. In August, police found 14 tons of rosewood hidden in the tanker of another truck bearing the ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged political activist Ouk Pich Samnang with intentional violence, causing damage to public property and obstructing the work of authorities after he drove his tuk-tuk through a security barricade near Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house during a protest ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged 10 members of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF), a political advocacy group vehemently opposed to the ruling CPP, with plotting to incite violence following their arrests last week. ...

Drivers must be responsible for what they commit when they cause road accidents that lead to loss of lives; they not only face fine, but also imprisonment, said Pen Khon, deputy chief of Bureau of Land Traffic. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a conviction against former Phnom Penh Police chief Heng Pov and three other men for the attempted murder of Military Police chief General Sao Sokha in 2003. ...

Six inmates busted out of Ratanakkiri Provincial Prison in the wee hours of yesterday morning, police said, adding another incident to a string of embarrassing escapes at the facility over the past two years. According to a post on the National Police’s website, authorities in Ratanakkiri’s ...

Cambodia has over the last six months deported more than 500 foreigners from 21 countries for illegally entering or staying in the country, according to a report seen Thursday. ...

A consortium of journalists on Wednesday sent a report to the governor of Kompong Chhnang province claiming that a man arrested last week for murdering one of their associates was framed in an attempt to cover up an illegal fishing syndicate with close connections to ...

Senior opposition lawmaker Son Chhay has formally requested that the entire staff list of the National Assembly’s more than 1,000-strong secretariat be turned over to him for investigation as part of a bid to root out “ghost” workers and nepotistic appointments. As part of his one-man ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of a woman charged with defrauding 24 would-be migrant workers of more than $30,000. ...

About 20 villagers who were employed in an illegal logging racket in Pailin province’s Sala Krao district have submitted a report to the provincial police accusing their two ringleaders of failing to pay their “service fee,” an official said Tuesday. ...

A British lawyer has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court, writes Kevin Ponniah, alleging that a wave of violent land-grabbing that has displaced 770,000 people has been carried out by Cambodia’s ruling elite, and that it amounts to a crime against humanity. ...

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the murder convictions of former Phnom Penh Municipal Police chief Heng Pov and three others in the case of the 2003 killing of Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Sok Sethamoni. Defendants Pov, Ly Rasy, Hang Vutha and Prum Sophearith have been ...