Judge forces sparse settlement on family of beaten children
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday forced a family whose three children were allegedly beaten by DM Group firm employees last month to accept only $1,000 in compensation in place of the $40,000 the family initially had demanded, the children’s father claimed. Ry Sarun, 52, said that investigating judge Eng Chamnag threatened to arrest Sarun’s two sons for allegedly injuring DM Group workers if the family did not accept the pittance, of which the judge then took $220 for himself, leaving the family members with only $780 for their troubles. … In his complaint to the court, Sarun alleged that four DM group workers beat his 12-year-old daughter, 14-year-old son and 21-year-old son when the youths tried to prevent the company from bulldozing the area and planting commercial rubber trees on land that already had been measured for the family. Srun said two of his six hectares of land had already been grabbed in such a way. … Sarun said that Judge Chamnag had told him the court would hear the case against the four workers next month. But he added that on Monday, when he visited the prison where the workers had been placed under detention after being charged by the court, he learned that the they had been released about two weeks before. … Chhay Thy, Ratanakkiri provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said … that the early release appeared highly illegal.
