Crime and law enforcement

Phnom Penh’s police force has had almost a week to investigate a fatal hit-and-run on Friday night, when a Range Rover slammed into a motorbike near the Ministry of Commerce, killing two men and seriously injuring another. But local police have not conducted even the most ...

A group of 15 local and international rights groups Tuesday sent a slew of letters to the Chinese government and companies involved in the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province seeking a halt to dam construction due to serious environmental and social ...

A villager involved in a long-running land dispute in Kompong Chhnang province with the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem has accused his commune police chief of discrimination after he was refused a character statement he needed to apply for a garment factory ...

Police raided a discount store in Phnom Penh and seized more than 1,000 bottles of beauty products on Monday after receiving a tip that the shop was selling counterfeit goods, an official said. Police confiscated 872 bottles of shower gel and 280 bottles of whitening cream ...

About 150 garment workers turned out to the Phnom Penh of­fices of the United Sisterhood Alliance NGO on Sunday to watch a politically charged fashion show entitled “Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality.” Aimed to highlight “the income gap between Cambodian garment workers and the selected CEOs of ...

Eight members of Cambodia’s largest independent union were released on bail yesterday after being tried at Takeo Provincial Court over their alleged involvement in a factory protest late last week, officials said. Defence lawyer Kim Socheat said the members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ ...

Copies of grade 12 examination papers will only be provided to a single teacher for each subject this year in order to identify the source of leaks, said Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron during a speech on Saturday. Mr. Naron, speaking at the American University of ...

The Takeo Provincial Court charged eight union representatives with incitement Sunday for taking part in a garment factory strike, bringing to 17 the number of unionists charged this month alone. The latest in the spate of recent arrests came just ahead of today’s high-level meeting between ...

Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...

A man, 18, was arrested in Kampong Chhnang province on Friday after a grenade attack killed a 69-year-old man and seriously injured five others. [Khov] Thim [the suspect] allegedly found the grenade in a field some months ago when tending to his cows and kept ...

American national and orphanage director Daniel Stephen Johnson was tried on Friday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on charges that he sexually abused five boys last year. The court heard that Johnson, 36, the director of the Hope Transitions Christian orphanage in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey ...

Two men died and another was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident on Friday night in Phnom Penh when a Range Rover plowed into a motorbike in Toek Thla commune, police said Sunday, add­ing to a recent spate of fatal—and of­ten high-profile—hit-and-runs. Thang Ratha, 23, died ...

Despite presenting no hard evidence against defendants throughout the two trials of 23 men arrested during a strike that turned deadly in early January, a prosecutor used his closing statement yesterday to up the charges against union leader Vorn Pov. The final day of two trials ...

The single-party National Assembly sat for the third day of its third plenary session Thursday, with a senior ruling party lawmaker calling on Information Minister Khieu Kanharith to examine whether journalists who call the Assembly “single party” can be punished under law. Sixty-four of the 68 ...

The three-ton haul of illegal elephant ivory seized by port officials on May 9 originated in Kenya and was then shipped through Malaysia to Cambodia in two freight containers, the chief of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port’s customs and excise department said Thursday. Most of the elephant ...

A car belonging to Ly Thida, the director of the Kompong Cham provincial department of economy and finance, was involved in a fatal hit-and-run collision Thursday in the province’s Choeung Prey district, a police official said. District deputy police chief Cheang Se said two people were ...

During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...

The single-party National Assembly sat for the second day of its third plenary session Wednesday, discussing two of eight chapters of the draft law on the Organization and Functioning of the Courts. The CPP-only parliament—minus 55 boycotting opposition CNRP lawmakers-elect—convened to discuss the first of three ...

Taking the stand for the first time since his arrest at a garment worker protest that turned violent in early January, union leader Vorn Pao told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday that he went to the protest only to make peace and was ...

When union leader Vorn Pov was finally allowed to give testimony yesterday on the third day of the trial of 23 men arrested during a garment strike in January, he found himself cut off by an attorney ordering him to answer only the exact question ...

Three provincial police chiefs will move into different jobs over the next three days due to their retirement or election to council positions, a police official said Tuesday. Kompong Chhnang provincial police chief Brigadier General Ath Khem will be replaced by his deputy, Brigadier General Prak ...

After receiving burns to 40 per cent of his body in an acid attack and undergoing surgery five times, 41-year-old Hak Ay now has blurred vision in both eyes, according to the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC). The survivor of this year’s first recorded acid attack ...

Muon Sokmean, a 29-year-old garment worker, scrambled off Veng Sreng Street on January 3 with military police in violent pursuit, brandishing their batons. What had been a militant protest for a $160 minimum wage in the garment sector—with many protesters lobbing rocks and crude Molotov cocktails ...

Police said Sunday that they will not pursue charges against Ek Sovannara—the son of a former Kandal provincial police chief—whose Lexus SUV on April 12 crashed into a motorbike carrying three men, killing one and causing the other two to have their left legs amputated. The ...