Youth environmental activists advocating against the development of a Koh Kong island say they are facing threats and surveillance after authorities blocked an advocacy push at a Royal University of Phnom Penh event earlier this month.
Youth activists who were charged with incitement over their participation in protests for the release of jailed unionist Rong Chhun defended their innocence in their second trial hearing on Tuesday, saying their actions amounted to freedom of expression.
Activists and civil society organizations called for an investigation into more than 200 tons of endangered wood seized in Hong Kong about a month ago, as the agriculture minister said he had yet to receive the exporter’s details from Hong Kong authorities.
Three Mother Nature environmentalists — arrested while preparing a video campaign against the infilling of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake — disputed the alleged criminality of their actions while on trial on Wednesday, arguing that raising concerns is not “incitement” as charged, their lawyer said.
Six youth activists were detained for a night for collecting thumbprints — despite the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak — for a petition calling on the government to ease citizens’ costs of living, the Phnom Penh governor said.
Community patrollers of the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary say local authorities are pushing them to sign contracts that they cannot patrol the forest, a year after they were banned from activities to monitor the protected area.
Amid denials of links to various politicians and opposition figures, one activist on trial at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday for incitement spoke of receiving a $1,000 donation for office rent from a Cambodian-Australian MP who is also a defendant in the case.
Security guards blocked some protesters outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court from buying breakfast, and told a street vendor of noodles, meatball soup, pork and rice to not sell to them, the protesters alleged on Thursday while rallying on an empty stomach.
Another tense hearing in the trial of prominent unionist Rong Chhun saw two supporters, who are also defendants, arguing they are merely a market vendor and tuk-tuk driver and not political activists despite participating in protests.
Environmental advocacy group Mother Nature Cambodia is known for their confrontational videos, with activists exposing crimes against nature. But with three members jailed, and others facing harassment, the group has decided to conceal their identities.
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