Law and judiciary

Less than a week into the role, Preah Sihanouk’s new police chief, Chuon Narin, has announced the early results of a crackdown on crimes involving foreigners, calling them the “main problem” facing the coastal city.  ...

Officials charged with protecting Cambodia’s Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary are colluding with loggers responsible for felling at least 300 trees each day, according to activists in the area. ...

A month after Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a directive ordering government bodies to put a halt on new hires—except to fill vacated positions—the Ministry of Public Function has authorized state institutions to hire 5,001 civil servants to replace those who had recently retired, quit ...

The Our Home center in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district has reopened under interim management after its director, Hang Vibol, was jailed last month and charged with abusing boys at the organization’s orphanage, which housed more than 50 children but was shuttered and will remain closed. ...

Police in Preah Sihanouk province yesterday arrested a British national in a guesthouse for alleged drug possession. ...

The body of what villagers had suspected was a Montagnard asylum seeker, found partially buried in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district earlier this week, was determined to be the remains of a local teenager who had drowned in a river, a villager said Thursday. ...

The US Institute of Peace on Wednesday announced the completion of a program – conducted by the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) – to train an additional 600 educators to teach Khmer Rouge history in the Kingdom’s secondary schools. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will roll out a new Agricultural Extension Policy that will look to boost the sector by making new knowledge and technology easily accessible to farmers and communities, in a bid to increase efficiency and productivity in the sector. ...

A woman was arrested on Wednesday in Banteay Meanchey province for allegedly smuggling 12 methamphetamine pills into the provincial prison by slashing open green beans and tucking the pills inside, local police said Thursday. ...

A day after making—and quickly retracting—claims to the media that disgraced Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei had been arrested, national military police spokesman Kheng Tito said Thursday that his comments had been made in jest. ...

Police in Siem Reap City said Thursday that they arrested six people on Wednesday for questioning over an arson attack on a decorative gateway built for the Angkor Sangkranta festival. ...

At least 16 more families that have been locked in a bitter and lengthy dispute with the municipal government over land in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood accepted municipal governor Pa Socheatvong’s offer of a land swap Thursday morning. ...

Following charges by the Appeal Court alleging that he swindled a former supporter out of $70,000 between 2009 and 2011, League for Democracy Party (LDP) president Khem Veasna yesterday criticised the Cambodian judiciary, saying that the courts were under the control of “powerful people” and ...

The widow of Ung Meng Chue, a tycoon who was gunned down outside a fruit store in Phnom Penh in November, was questioned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for the first time on Tuesday. ...

Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) chief Om Yentieng on Wednesday denied that ousted Phnom Penh Municipal Court director Ang Mealaktei had been arrested following two days of questioning over serious graft claims, despite two well-placed officials indicating otherwise. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday told provincial governors to take responsibility for curbing forestry crimes in their respective provinces and scolded officials who blame one another when illegal logging is uncovered. ...

Authorities yesterday forced out 10 Vietnamese citizens and burned down several shrines illegally built on a Navy-controlled island off of Koh Kong province, an official said. ...

As eight Cambodian students wait to be evacuated from the embattled Yemeni capital of Sanaa, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Wednesday 12 others have been located in the country. ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday said local residents were probably lying about having recently come across the partially buried body of a Montagnard asylum seeker from Vietnam. ...

Police in Sihanoukville on Tuesday raided the rented house of a Russian businessman who is wanted by local authorities for ordering a violent attack at the Queenco casino in February, but came up empty- handed, an official said. ...

About 100 women’s rights activists were prevented from riding tuk-tuks to the National Assembly and the Phnom Penh headquarters of the ruling CPP on Tuesday, but successfully delivered a petition to the opposition CNRP demanding female representation on the reformed National Election Committee. ...

The first draft of a long-awaited food law that aims to regulate food safety and quality “from the farm to the table” could be completed as soon as July, UN and government officials said yesterday. ...

At least 58 Cambodians were among the more than 300 enslaved fishermen recently rescued from a remote island in Indonesia’s Maluku province, an intergovernmental migration body said Tuesday. ...

League for Democracy Party (LDP) president Khem Veasna was yesterday charged at the Appeal Court on allegations that he cheated a party activist out of $70,000 between 2009 and 2011. The plaintiff, Duk Moeun, had sued Veasna at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in August 2013, ...