Three Mother Nature environmentalists arrested last year and already serving jail terms for incitement have been handed two further charges, insulting the king and plotting, which carry maximum jail sentences of five and 10 years respectively, their lawyer said.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has set a July 1 trial date for incitement charges against nine defendants involved in a rally outside the Chinese Embassy last year.
The case, which sparked a social media outcry month, has previously raised issues of power imbalances in the entertainment industry as well as Cambodia’s long history of women facing abuse at the hands of powerful men.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday denied bail to five members of activist group Khmer Thavrak and two members of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, as the defendants urged that they had already been in jail for as long as nine months.
Six defendants who were arrested for protesting outside the Chinese Embassy on Paris Peace Agreements Day in October, as well as two others at large, faced trial on Monday for incitement at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
Following hundreds of arrests, at least 102 people are facing court charges for Covid-19 violations, including more than a dozen put on trial without a lawyer after the accused chose to represent themselves in their misdemeanor cases, according to court officials.
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.
Two youths who were filmed smacking an unidentified foreign cyclist on the back of the head while they drove a motorbike past him were sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday to set an example for other wayward youth, a police official said.
Two ex-CNRP members have been found guilty of insulting the king and sentenced to three years in prison with two years suspended, Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesperson Y Rin said on Wednesday.
Representatives of the U.S., E.U., U.K. and Australia this week raised concerns over the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentencing nine CNRP opposition leaders to 20 to 25 years in prison for a planned “attack” on the state.
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