Boeng Kak Arrest Not Linked to Evictions, Says Local Man

The Phnom Penh man who filed a complaint against a woman deeply involved in the Boeng Kak community’s anti-eviction protests called a press conference on Friday to insist that his dispute with the woman, which led to her arrest last week, was a personal matter unrelated to her activism. Since Yorm Bopha’s arrest and immediate imprisonment on Tuesday on a charge of intentional violence, human rights groups have linked it to her role in numerous protests against the long-running eviction of families from the Boeng Kak community. … At the conference, Mr. [Vat] Sarat, who works as a motorcycle taxi driver, alleged that Ms. Bopha, 32, had asked her husband and her two brothers to attack Mr. Sarat’s son and nephew with axes and screwdrivers. …