Civil society observers welcomed the justice minister’s call to root out corruption in the courts, but said challenges could remain to remove politics from the country’s judiciary.
A petition from 258 families asks the Justice Ministry to intervene after the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court ordered a halt to constructions and sales on more than 200 hectares of land claimed by several different parties.
CNRP president Kem Sokha can get his wish for a speedy trial if he goes back to jail, as the courts are prioritizing cases for those detained in the country’s overcrowded prisons, Justice Ministry spokesperson Chin Malin said on Friday.
A former Pailin deputy provincial governor says two under-secretaries of state at the Justice Ministry and Council of Ministers defrauded him of $100,000 over a Phnom Penh land deal as the two men were handed preliminary charges and summoned to court.
Prominent unionist Rong Chhun, whose July arrest over comments he made about the Vietnam border sparked a series of protests, on Wednesday appealed for bail in the Supreme Court, but was shut down by judges for asking the court to “not be politically influenced.”
Jailed unionist Rong Chhunn had “intent to incite social disorder” by releasing statements containing fabrications about the Cambodia-Vietnam border demarcation, the government told the U.N.’s human rights office in response to questions about his arrest.
Justice Ministry officials need more room, so “empty public land” will be used to store court documents by filling in another part of Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s “last lakes” that feeds hundreds of families and protects the capital from flooding.
Some 132 lawsuits against 379 people have been used to silence expression and stifle civic engagement in the year to March, with most of the actions brought by the government, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said.
The Justice Ministry said it has cleared 8,000 backlogged court cases, though closure eludes a defendant with a 12-year-old charge.
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights has called on judges to “inform and fully explain” to all defendants both their rights during trial and the charges against them, citing a 16-month review of proceedings at the Phnom Penh Appeal Court.
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