Judge Denies Coercion Claim in Land Dispute Assault Case

A father whose three children were badly beaten by employees of a rubber plantation has accused a Ratanakkiri Provincial Court judge of threatening to send two sons, aged 14 and 21, to jail unless they accept $1,000 in compensation and drop the assault complaint. Ry Saron is attempting to sue the plantation owner DM Group, for $40,000 for the May 5 beating that company employees inflicted with wood and metal poles on his three children and a neighbor. The four were attempting to stop rubber plantation workers from clearing the land claimed by their families when they were beaten. … Mr. Saron also alleged that Judge [Eng] Champnap threatened to charge his sons and his neighbor’s son with attacking the plantation workers, thus turning them into the perpetrators and not the victims of the assault. … Under duress, Mr Saron said he agreed to thumbprint a statement, two lines of which he kept blank at the bottom, which Judge Champnap subsequently filled in himself stating that Mr. Saron had agreed to accept the $1,000. “The judge said, “your sons will not be charged and the four workers will be also released,” he said. … DM Group has been locked in land disputes for years. Last year, Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Second Lieutenant Sin Vanny, 50, was arrested for shooting and injuring a 20-year old villager who was riding a motor cycle across land at the center of a separate long running land dispute between ethnic minority villagers and the rubber plantation. Lt. Vanny was moonlighting at the time as a security guard for DM Group in Lumphat district. …

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/judge-denies-coercion-claim-in-assault-case-26546/