Kreung protest for release of charged arsonist

Dozens of ethnic minority Kreung villagers protested outside the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court on Monday, demanding the release of a fellow Kreung man presently in pretrial detention for setting fire to a pile of wood on land the community sold in 2007 but claims it was never given money for. Haing Noeu, 50, was arrested Friday for leading a group of villagers to the site of the land dispute and helping set fire to a pile of wood set aside for the new owner’s office building. He was charged with destruction of private property the next day and is being held at the provincial prison. … The villagers say they sold 400 hectares of their land to businessman Sing Visith in 2007 for a planned rubber plantation but had yet to be paid the $20,000 they were promised at the time. Mr. La, the court director, said he did not know about the particulars of the dispute because the villagers had never filed a complaint. … Mr. Visith, the businessman, claimed the villagers had been paid. “I already paid $20,000 to the landowners when I bought the land from them in 2007,” he said. Mr. Visith added that the court had since awarded the land to Ly Sok Nim, a businesswoman who had an injunction placed on the site because of a loan he had taken from her in 2010 and failed to repay.

 Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kreung-protest-for-release-of-charged-arsonist-54429/