Last Three Kratie Province ‘Secessionists’ Released from Prison
It was not the hero’s welcome that greeted Mam Sonando when more than a thousand boisterous supporters cheered his release from Prey Sar prison Friday and lifted the popular radio station owner onto their shoulders for an impromptu parade. But for the three unheralded farmers caught up in the same allegations of rebellion that saw them convicted with Mr. Sonando in October in a court case denounced as baseless and political, their much quieter release from prison was just as sweet. … Along with fellow villagers Kan Sovann and Phorn Sroeun, Mr. [Touch] Ream was arrested in May and soon charged with taking up Mr. Sonando’s alleged call for an armed rebellion against the local authorities in rural Kratie province. … At the appeal hearing, Mr. Ream and Mr. Sovan confessed to helping monitor a makeshift roadblock on the village outskirts but insisted they were only protesting against a rubber plantation, which many of them accused of grabbing their farmland. Since the police raid in Broma, a handful of police have remained permanently stationed just outside the village in a newly constructed post. …
