Another Court Clerk Arrested for Corruption

A clerk at the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of corruption and bribe-taking, police and Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) officials said, but rights groups said clerks alone are not in a position to determine the course of court cases and that more needs to be done to investigate corruption at higher levels in the judiciary. Provincial deputy police chief Chan Kosal said the ACU worked with local police to apprehend Suong Sok Heng, 20, the personal clerk of provincial court prosecutor Phan Vanroath. ... The deputy police chief declined to comment on the specific allegations against Mr. Sok Heng, but said that the suspect had been accused of taking bribes from people alleged to have been smuggling illegally logged rosewood. ... Chan Soveth, deputy head of the monitoring section at rights group Adhoc, said that more needed to be done to fight corruption among high-ranking members of the government and judiciary. ... In July, the Supreme Court refused bail to a Phnom Penh Municipal Court clerk convicted of breach of trust for taking $250,000 from a businessman who wanted his case dropped. The clerk claimed that most of the money had been given to the judge, Ke Sakorn, for whom he worked.

Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-court-clerk-arrested-for-corruption-44366/