Law and judiciary

The Constitutional Council of Cambodia on Wednesday deemed new legislation regulating the country’s non-governmental organizations to be in full compliance with the Constitution, rejecting all arguments—from the U.N. down to the NGOs themselves—that it flies in the face of the highest law of the land. ...

Responding to criticism of the eighteen-month jail terms handed down to four unionists who blocked a road at a strike in Svay Rieng province last year, a deputy prosecutor said Wednesday that their actions were as severe as those of former Bavet City governor Chhouk ...

Authorities in Mondolkiri province arrested three men Wednesday morning after discovering nearly 150 kg of illegal bushmeat in the vehicle they were driving, a forestry official said. ...

As about 100 fishermen in Koh Kong province on Wednesday resumed their monthslong campaign against a company they accuse of illegal sand dredging, an environmental NGO claimed the firm was now hiring locals as security guards in an attempt to divide the community. ...

Residents of Koh Rong Island, off the coast of Sihanoukville, have this week called on government officials, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, to review what they are labelling “abusive activities” by the Royal Group (RG) conglomerate. ...

The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Tuesday questioned a district police chief over allegations that he raped a high school student in his office last month but did not charge the official, who has been suspended pending investigations by the court and National Police. ...

A new provincial prison in Pailin’s Sala Krao district still has no running water supply six months after it accepted more than 100 prisoners, local officials say.The prisoners arrived in early March after being transferred from their former prison – an old movie theatre in ...

Ten members of the Khmer National Liberation Front charged with treason for their role in handing out anti-Vietnamese propaganda last year were denied bail at the Supreme Court yesterday.Judge Khem Punn presided over the hearing, with prosecutor Nov Monychut also in attendance. ...

The Constitutional Council has officially accepted the contentious Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations, which would tighten regulations on thousands of organizations in the country in what critics fear could mean a major crackdown on basic freedoms and government criticism. ...

The Minister of Interior has ordered senior officials to conduct unannounced spot checks of the Kingdom’s detention centres in an effort to ensure that inmates are not receiving ill treatment behind bars. ...

Rights group Licadho has welcomed an announcement from the Interior Ministry that conditions at prisons, social rehabilitation centers and drug rehabs will be improved to ensure that the rights of inmates, patients and others housed or confined at the centers will be respected. ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court director said Tuesday that the bus company involved in a deadly crash that killed 19 people and injured 21 in Svay Rieng province in May has had its latest compensation offer rejected by the victims’ families. ...

A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said Tuesday that the government was considering a request made by the new Thai ambassador to repatriate seven of the country’s nationals serving prison sentences in Cambodia. ...

The country’s anti-corruption czar on Tuesday said the former director of the National Malaria Center must pay back the $351,000 in bribes he took in exchange for mosquito net contracts—effectively admitting the ex-director’s guilt—but that he would not be prosecuted. ...

Duong Otdom Chhorvin, aka Duong Chhay, was convicted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday of having beaten and threatened to kill the son of tycoon Try Pheap but walked free following the verdict after having his sentence reduced. ...

The Constitutional Council will meet with a group of opposition lawmakers on Wednesday over a controversial draft law to regulate NGOs, as it prepares to review the bill and send it to the king to be signed into law. ...

Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana on Monday presided over the swearing-in of 55 recent graduates of the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions as judges and prosecutors at the Royal Palace’s throne hall in Phnom Penh. ...

Police from Takeo province came under fire in neighboring Kampot province early Sunday morning as they pursued a truck transporting a load of luxury wood while four other cars tried to protect the truck carrying the timber, according to officials, who said police managed to ...

The Pursat Provincial Court on Monday charged a border police official with intentional violence for cutting off his colleague’s fingers with a cleaver at their barracks on Friday night, officials said. ...

The head of the Forestry Administration’s Mondolkiri cantonment said Monday that he had accused one man over an August 1 incident in which military police freed the drivers of four trucks transporting illegally logged timber from the custody of anti-economic crime police and escaped with ...

The relatives and neighbors of two sisters who were arrested in Phnom Penh last week over the alleged sexual enslavement of their 13-year-old niece are angry. Members of the mostly Cham Muslim community living along the Tonle Sap river in Russei Keo district’s Chraing Chamreh ...

Union leaders will send yet another request to the Ministry of Labor this week to call for changes to a contentious draft law that critics fear will take power away from labor organizations and benefit factories in Cambodia’s largest industry. ...

The Siem Reap Provincial Court on Saturday charged the son-in-law of the provincial prison director with intentional violence and “public insult” for allegedly punching a traffic police officer last week and then threatening to run her over with his car, officials said Sunday. ...

Police in Kratie province say they are searching for the driver of a truck who had been transporting illegally logged timber through Snuol district early Saturday morning when it overturned and burst into flames. ...