Adhoc Rights Worker Charged With Aiding ‘Perpetrator’

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has summoned Chan Soveth, a long-serving senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, over charges of aiding an unnamed perpetrator in Phnom Penh earlier this year, according to a copy of the citation obtained yesterday. Dated Aug. 9 and sent to Adhoc’s office in Phnom Penh, the citation states that Mr. Soveth is charged “with providing Assistance to a Perpetrator. Committed in Phnom Penh in May 2012, in compliance with article 544 of Criminal Code” and and summoned for questioning by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court next Friday. If found guilty of the charges, Mr. Soveth could face up to three years in prison. Should he not appear, the citation notes, a warrant will be issued for his arrest. … The court warrant does not specify whom Mr. Soveth is accused of aiding, and investigating Judge Chhe Virak declined to comment. But the charges against Mr. Soveth are dated just two days after Prime Minister Hun Sen implicated an unnamed NGO for trying to help so-called secessionist movement in Kratie province. The independent radio owner Mam Sonando has already been charged on four counts of fomenting the alleged secessionist movement, which was heavily cracked down on by security forces in May. …