Law and judiciary

In a move seemingly incongruent with the government’s plans to offer clemency to a number of female inmates on International Women’s Day on Sunday, a local rights group announced yesterday that new restrictions introduced by authorities have forced them to cancel prison activities marking the ...

New articles may be added to a draft law on disaster management, including punishments for officials who break the law. The current draft includes prison sentences and small fines for people who, for example, enter restricted areas during a disaster. ...

As police closed in on Montagnard asylum seekers hiding in the forests of Ratanakkiri province last week, Klan Hoeun, 42, said Wednesday that he knew he had to at least try to get the group to Phnom Penh, to safety. ...

A defrocked monk who was handed a one-year jail sentence for obstructing officials during a wave of arrests of activists and opposition figures in Phnom Penh last year was on Wednesday questioned over an additional charge of “joining a criminal association,” a human rights monitor ...

Following a bail hearing for CNRP information department chief Meach Sovannara at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the opposition party’s spokesman said he was “optimistic” that the court would decide to release the official when it announces a verdict on March 11. ...

The Tbong Khmum Provincial Court has not issued an arrest warrant for the nephew of a senior Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) general despite police naming him as the suspect in the shooting of another man more than five months ago, according to officials and ...

The body of a fisherman was discovered floating in the Tonle Sap lake in Kompong Chhnang province’s Boribor district on Tuesday after a vicious boating attack, police said Wednesday, in what is the fourth such incident on the lake this year. ...

Two Nigerians and three Cambodians were arrested Wednesday for attempting to rob $2,000 from a mobile-payment kiosk in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, police said. ...

Chin Sarin has been removed as Sihanoukville’s governor, according to the Interior Ministry, less than four months after the city’s police chief was sacked amid criticism that he was sleeping on the job as a violent crime wave swept through the seaside tourist hub. ...

National Police chief Neth Savoeun on Tuesday rebuked police in Kompong Speu province for allowing a man in a Mercedes-Benz SUV to escape after he fired a handgun 33 times in the air in apparent protest at a $3 speeding fine. ...

A businesswoman who was arrested in Thailand in December and extradited to Cambodia over charges of plotting to rape and murder the wife and daughter of the country’s commerce minister claimed after being denied bail by the Appeal Court on Tuesday that the minister was ...

Seven South Korean nationals were arrested in Siem Reap province Monday on suspicion of attempting to extort money from foreigners through Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, after a further six were detained for allegedly committing the same crime last month, an immigration official said ...

Two rival groups of tuk-tuk drivers clashed Monday evening in front of Phnom Penh’s railway station in Daun Penh district, beating each other with metal pipes and chains over a dispute regarding passengers, police said Tuesday. ...

Despite Cambodia’s unofficial freeze on inter-country adoptions, the Ministry of Social Affairs recently urged partner countries to reforge, in principle, their adoption partnerships with the Kingdom. In a statement issued on Monday, the ministry opened the application process for international adoption agencies, as only adoption agencies ...

An environmental activist in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley on Monday denied building an ecotourism information center with illegally logged wood after he was summoned to the local court to answer questions over alleged forestry crimes. ...

Local rights group Licadho yesterday praised the government’s plan to release a number of incarcerated women who are pregnant or have their children with them in prison within the next week, but said deeper reforms are needed. In a statement, the NGO said it welcomed an ...

The chief of police in Ratanakkiri province on Monday denied that authorities arrested 36 Montagnards, who the U.N. and local villagers say were deported to Vietnam last week while attempting to reach Phnom Penh to apply for asylum. ...

The Cambodian government will provide legal representation to three citizens who were shot at and arrested by Thai soldiers last week while allegedly smuggling drugs across the border. ...

Chief Justices of Southeast Asian countries, joined by the top magistrate of Guam, have converged in the Philippines for the 3rd Asean Chief Justices’ Meeting in Boracay, Aklan. ...

The Koh Koh Provincial Court has summoned an environmental activist living in the Areng Valley for questioning over allegations that he felled trees in a forest in order to build a community center, rights workers said Sunday. ...

A group of 36 Montagnard asylum seekers who went missing last week after they left their hiding places in the forests of Ratanakkiri province have been arrested and deported back to Vietnam, the U.N. and local villagers said Sunday. ...

An inter-governmental anti-money laundering group has stopped monitoring Cambodia after it said the Kingdom had made “significant progress” toward fighting financial crimes. ...

The ruling and opposition parties announced on Saturday the creation of a new working group to discuss a bipartisan plan to table a rent control law that will regulate rising housing prices and sudden rental hikes for all tenants in the Kingdom. Originally, the plan ...

A group of Siem Reap provincial CNRP officials plan to protest outside the opposition party’s headquarters in Phnom Penh this morning to request that provincial party chief Ke Sovannaroth be ousted due to alleged “irregular spending,” an official said on Sunday. ...