Uwazi

The wives of Cambodian opposition activists jailed on “incitement” charges were roughed up by police as they staged a protest Friday outside the U.N.’s human rights office in Phnom Penh, demanding that the government drop the charges against their husbands and release them.

The group of about 10 women — known as the “Friday Wives” for their weekly rallies on behalf of their husbands from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) — demanded the release of their spouses following reports that the men had been infected with the coronavirus in prison.

Several police officers roughly manhandled the women as they tried to pry large posters with their husbands’ images from their hands during the protest in the capital’s Chamkar Mon district, the women said.

Prum Chantha, one of the protesters, said it was beyond belief that police resorted to manhandling them while breaking up the group in front of the U.N.’s office.

“They dared to abuse us in front of the U.N office… This is very unjust for the family members of politicians,” she said.

The women submitted a petition to the U.N.’s human rights office to intervene, saying that they were concerned about the health and safety of their husbands because they have been banned from communicating with them for the last three months while the pandemic has spread rapidly in Cambodia.

They complained that their husbands are at risk for contracting the virus because they are being held in overcrowded prison cells and don’t have enough food to eat.

The women have said that authorities should allow them access to their detained spouses during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can monitor their health.

Dos Kimteang, another protester, told RFA that the women did not violate any laws by gathering because they did not impede traffic or disrupt social order, and that they adhered to the Health Ministry’s guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We never provoked any social chaos,” she said. “Please don’t abuse us and then accuse us of violating the law.”

‘They gathered without permission’

A coronavirus outbreak has surged unabated through Cambodia’s prisons in recent weeks amid a nationwide outbreak. As of Friday, the government reported a total 33,075 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 886 news ones, and 242 total related fatalities.

San Sok Seiha, spokesman for the Phnom Penh municipal police, said police prevented the women from gathering because they did not request official permission to assemble.

But when RFA asked him to cite the regulation that requires people to ask for permission to hold public gatherings, he refused to elaborate.

“They gathered without permission,” he said. “This county has laws, so authorities are obligated to implement them. We can’t let a few people to provoke problems in Phnom Penh city.”

On Friday, 20 civil society organizations and unions issued a statement repeating a call for the government to release all prisoners of conscience in light of the growing number of COVID-19 infections.

“In view of the reports of mounting COVID-19 cases within Cambodian prisons, compounded by prison overcrowding, we call on the RGC [Royal Government of Cambodia] to release all nonviolent prisoners of conscience as a mitigation measure to minimize the risk posed by the spread of the virus,” the statement said.

Soeung Sen Karuna, spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) who monitored the Friday Wives protest, said that the police crackdown on the women in front of the U.N’s human rights office indicates a further decline of human rights in the Southeast Asian nation.

“This is yet more evidence showing that … the authorities should consider their actions and coordinate them, so that people can express themselves and their demands,” he said. “It would give the government a better image.”

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.

Khmer Thavrak members Hun Vannak, Chhoeun Daravy, Tha Lavy, Eng Malai and Koet Saray were arrested in August and September amid protests in support of jailed unionist Rong Chhun; KSILA’s, Muong Sopheak and Mean Prom Mony were arrested in September for their involvement in the same protests.

On Tuesday, Malai, with a visible swollen leg, held hands with Daravy as their lawyers made their arguments for bail.

Vannak spoke out that even though the courts had not found them guilty, it had already jailed them for many months.

Judge Tith Sothy Borachat tried to cut him off, telling him that only lawyers would be permitted to speak.

“Please release us. We have clear home addresses and we are prepared to show up when the court needs to do any interrogation,” Vannak said.

Sam Chamroeun, one of three defense lawyers, argued that the pretrial detention had continued too long. The crime for which they had been charged — incitement to disturb social security — carried a potential jail sentence of six months to two years.

The seven defendants had already been in jail for longer than the low-end of the potential sentence, he said.

Pretrial detention of more than six months also breached the requirement for a quick and fair trial, Chamroeun argued, citing the Criminal Procedure Code.

“The court needs to consider this case as urgent and necessary,” he said.

Bail would reduce challenges for the defendants, including the risk of Covid-19 and mental health pressures, as they could be in the care of their families, Chamroeun said.

Deputy prosecutor Sam Rithy Veasna said the defendants had already had two trial hearings, and their release now would obstruct the court process.

The trial had been delayed due to Covid-19, he added. “We will continue the procedure when the Covid-19 situation is better,” he said.

Prum Mony was questioned during a trial hearing in February, when he was asked about links to a Cambodian-Australian former member of parliament in Victoria, Hong Lim.

Sopheak, the other KSILA member, said on Tuesday that he was chronically ill and he was not getting the care he needed.

“It is very difficult to endure this and it is very difficult to live there,” especially without money to spend in prison, Sopheak said.

He did not want to stay in prison as he was afraid that he would have mental health issues, he said.

During a 15-minute break, the defendants talked with each other and visiting family members. Some family members could be heard asking about their health and seen handing over bundles of 20,000 riel notes, worth about $5 each.

After the break, Sothy Borachat, the judge, said there was not enough evidence to release the defendants on bail, and rejected the defense’s arguments.

“To guarantee their presence for the charges at the upcoming trial, [the court] does not allow their release on bail,” he said.

A specific trial date was not announced.

Chamroeun, the defense lawyer, said he would discuss appealing the decision with his clients.

Soldiers fired bullets at land protesters on Thursday in Kandal province, hitting one man in the shoulder, as a group of about 100 Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers faced off against villagers involved in a land conflict in Kandal province, about five kilometres from Phnom Penh. The injured man remains hospitalised, while some local villagers resumed protesting on Friday morning.

The shooting occurred in Tuol Prich commune, Angk Snuol district, in an area that houses several military bases and outposts and has seen a boom in development in recent years. Villagers reported that the soldiers were from the nearby Thmat Pong military school. Videos of the incident show an excavator digging up land while local villagers try to stop it and block National Road 51. Uniformed soldiers can be seen advancing on the villagers and firing dozens of live rounds from handguns and assault rifles into the air, at the ground, and into the crowd of villagers, hitting one man in the shoulder.

The land conflict involves more than 150 hectares that have been farmed for many years by more than 300 local families from at least seven villages. Satellite data shows that the land around the location of the shooting has been farmed continuously since at least 2008, which is the earliest satellite imagery available on Google Earth. Government-produced maps dating from 2001 also mark the area as containing farmland. The Kandal provincial government issued a letter on Thursday saying that all of the land was state land, while some villagers have said they have farmed on the land since 1979.

There have been several shootings of land protesters by mixed forces including military soldiers in recent years. In January 2019, a man was shot in Preah Sihanouk province and left paralysed after mixed forces descended on protesters and opened fire during the enforcement of a Supreme Court decision over a land conflict in the province. In March 2018, three people were shot in Kratie after mixed forces fired into a crowd of 300 villagers protesting a violent eviction.

Several protesters captured the improper deployment of soldiers and excessive use of force using smartphones, and videos of the shooting were posted to Facebook.

For Hong Ly, the dispute over her family’s hectare of farmland in Kien Svay district was frustrating, but it became personal on Monday when authorities arrested her 40-year-old brother.

As the woman recounted his unexplained arrest on Wednesday, dozens of people huddled in the shade of her stilted house, discussing how authorities have disappointed them in their response to a yearlong land dispute and to the residents blocking National Road 1 in protest, and now for a new offense: the arrest of Hong Sok.

“He’s a gentleman. He never hurt anybody,” said Ly, 52.

A Kandal province land dispute that was supposed to be solved in 2017 has continued, as residents of three villages say they’ve been forcefully stopped from using their land, leading residents to block roads in protest of the dispute and one man’s arrest.

In less than an hour after reporters arrived, more than 60 people were murmuring to each other, occasionally raising their voices to explain the two-day protest and vent about the land they feel they’re losing to neighbors.

The dispute ignited on Sunday, when residents of Kien Svay district’s Banteay Dek commune decided to block National Road 1 in order to garner attention to their dispute, over about 3,000 hectares of farmland distributed among three villages.

The residents who were gathered under Ly’s house told VOD that they were awarded 1 hectare of land per family a few years ago, when Prime Minister Hun Sen intervened in their dispute with Lok Hour, a CPP lawmaker, and granted the area back to residents of Prek Pol, Kandal Krom and Samrong Thom villages. However, villagers said they never received titles for the area.

About 3 km away from their homes, past fields of rice, eggplants and other crops, the residents constructed a number of farm shacks to guard their land, marked with Cambodian and Buddhist flags. At the intersection of two dirt motorbike paths, residents hung large laminated posters of Hun Sen, deputy prime minister Sar Kheng and Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany.

But since that government intervention, residents of another nearby village, Chong Ksat, have been trying to stop their community from using the farmland, explained resident Cheang Sinoun, 48. She said she had been able to clear and plow her land but wasn’t able to cultivate it, and some of her neighbors had been attacked with slingshots while trying to clear the land.

When asked why people would be attacking others for their land, Sinoun said she did not know, later adding, “I think someone hired the people to claim this land.” Powerful people have been interested in the area, she said.

Sinoun said a group of villagers — she couldn’t remember how many — gathered at the Kien Svay district office on Sunday at 8 a.m. to meet with officials, alleging that residents from another village were trying to prevent them from using land that was granted to them. They were ignored by district officials, so instead they went to block the national road at about 10 a.m. to demand attention. Sok, the arrested man, was with them during this protest.

“They threatened us to stop blocking the road. Police told us they could arrest us for blocking the road,” Sinoun said, saying this was the first time the frustrated residents took this action.

Recounting what she learned later from peers, Ly said her brother Sok had gone for a meal and coffee early Sunday evening, and was arrested at about 6:30 p.m. He participated in the protest, but Ly said she did not know why he was targeted, saying he wasn’t a community leader.

“We do not know whether someone called him [for a meal] to target him or not,” she said.

The residents then gathered again that night, blocking the road a second time, now to demand Sok’s release as well as for a solution to their dispute, Sinoun said.

“Only this way can break through to them,” she argued, saying authorities ignored their concerns before. “We are ignorant, but we don’t think it’s illegal.”

Sok’s 24-year-old daughter, Sok Kakada, said she saw her father briefly on Monday morning, when the residents reported to the Kien Svay district hall for a discussion. While others were worried about Sok’s health because he has diabetes, he told the crowd he was okay.

“We wanted to ask authorities” what Sok was charged with, Kakada said. “But they wouldn’t talk.”

Sin Siphoeun, another resident who joined the roadblock protest, said the authorities had promised protestors they would release Sok on Monday morning, but they had not. She called Sok’s short visit with the protestors an attempt by authorities to appease the angry residents, but she warned that they could block the road again. Siphoeun said she and her neighbors just wanted an explanation for his arrest.

“He has not killed anybody nor stolen anything from anybody, and what he has done was for all the people to find a solution, but [authorities] accused him of being a bad person and arrested him,” she said. “We’re not scared because we have not done anything illegal. … Why did they arrest [him] and what kind of offense did he commit?”

When asked about the dispute, Kandal’s deputy provincial governor, Nouv Peng Chandara, told reporters to check the provincial administration’s Facebook post from Monday, which said that residents who blocked the road had accepted the government’s mediation.

According to a Phnom Penh Post report from 2017, the Council of Ministers ordered the Land Ministry to return 2,997 hectares of land in Kien Svay and Sa’ang districts to villagers, with some 2,391 hectares taken from CPP lawmaker Hour.

Mao Phirun, a Kandal provincial councilor and former governor, said the land was returned to residents via a sub-decree in 2017 after Hour had taken the land illegally from residents. Hard titles from this area were made, he said, but people who were not granted land by the government could be jealous.

“People know it, and they have no land and they see other people’s land. … They have been provoked by other people,” he said.

“There are brokers behind this … the one who is behind it, they have been known [by the people], and the one who is being detained pushed the cyclo only to be crushed by the car,” he said. “[The protestors] will be the ones to bear the blow.”

Senior NagaWorld union leaders all received dismissal notices amid the casino’s plan to lay off more than 1,000 employees, a union official said, in what some labor and civil society observers labeled an attempt to eliminate the active union from the workplace.

NagaWorld has begun a process of laying off 1,329 employees, which it has explained is due to declining revenues, according to the union. But the workers targeted for dismissal have been long-time union members, and on Thursday the union’s top leadership all received notice, said NagaWorld union vice president Chhun Sokha.

Sokha said on Friday that she and other leaders, including union president Chhim Sithar and more than a dozen core activists, received a dismissal message from the company on Thursday.

As of Friday, more than 600 employees — mostly union members — had received notice, she added.

Sokha said the company wants to eliminate protests, which the union has led. She said recent protests were about protecting workers rights.

“It is a violation of the freedom of association. We have the right to be an independent union, which has been registered and recognized by the Ministry of Labor. And now the company is terminating the leaders as well as the union activists, to make the leaders and activists unable to fulfill their obligations on behalf of workers,” she said.

She added that NagaWorld should not be allowed to do whatever it wanted, and the union was preparing a legal complaint to file to the Labor Ministry.

She said most workers had declined the redundancy compensation offered by the company so they could fight the dismissals together.

“They are also waiting to see what Naga wants to do to the union. They said as they already cut [the leaders], they might as well cut all 8,000 employees in the company. Then let’s wait and see how the company will operate without any employees working for them.”

Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said he hadn’t received any complaint from the union yet, but any dismissals of union leaders needed to be justified.

“In principle, union leaders cannot be fired unless they have made serious mistakes or violated any of the company’s internal regulations, or [due to] the actual financial situation of the company. We need to look at the facts and the root of the problem first,” Sour said.

NagaWorld chief operating officer Mike Ngai could not be reached.

International Labor Organization national coordinator Sophorn Tun, when asked if the ILO would be taking action in the case, said: “It will, as soon as it receives from the union of the workers affected a request detailing the circumstances of the case.”

He added that ILO staff have no authority to pronounce whether the case was a violation of labor rights or Cambodia’s Labor Law — “only its competent supervisory bodies, including the Committee on Freedom of Association [can do that].”

Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said he believed NagaWorld’s layoff plan was not about Covid-19 economic disruptions, but a way to eliminate union activities. The NagaWorld union had been unafraid to strike and protest.

“I can say that there can be some discrimination against the union, and [the company] wants to take advantages of workers’ rights. For example, dismissing old workers, recruiting new workers, eliminating unions, et cetera,” he said. “Laying off unionists in particular sets a bad example for other employers.”

Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said the company was taking advantage of the Covid-19 outbreak to “crush” the union.

“There is nothing other than intent to destroy the union,” Sina said. Dismissals due to genuine financial difficulties were fine, but “dismissals focusing on union activists, union leaders — these show that the real intention is to discriminate against the union.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director Chak Sopheap said mass layoffs amid Covid-19 went against the Labor Ministry’s advice to support workers during the crisis.

“If the termination refers to active individuals like union representatives, it means that the company has violated and harassed the union representative,” Sopheap said, calling it “revenge against active individuals.”

The casino and hotel company reported a net profit of $102 million in 2020 despite the Covid-19 crisis, down from more than $521 million in 2019.

Police detained an informal-workers union official and placed him in two-week quarantine in Banteay Meanchey province as he was gathering names of members facing economic difficulties amid the nation’s ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.

Poipet city deputy police chief Born Seiha said on Wednesday that Kang Nakorn, an official for the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association, or IDEA, was brought in after he went to a noodle shop that had previously been visited by people who tested positive for Covid-19. Nakorn had collected as many as 170 names, Seiha said.

Officers had yet to question Nakorn, as he was placed in quarantine at Nimit High School in the city, Seiha said.

“[We] have not arrested him. We called him in for questioning, called him in for questioning for collecting [names], of 170 people. For what purpose?” the deputy police chief said. “People complained to us.”

Seiha said he could not say whether the authorities would release Nakorn after 14 days of quarantine, as authorities were still investigating.

Vorn Pov, the union’s president, said there were others at the noodle shop, so it did not make sense to only detain and quarantine Nakorn.

“A lot of people,” Pov said. “Why was only he taken in?”

Nakorn had collected names and ID numbers of members linked to or facing challenges in relation to Covid-19 cases, Pov said.

“It is just a matter of charity — purely charitable activities, not political incitement,” he said. “So I think it is unusual to call him in for questioning. Yes — it’s regretful.”

He asked for Nakorn’s release, saying he suffered from health problems like high blood pressure.

Two digital news journalists reported harassment by authorities Tuesday while covering villagers protesting two separate land disputes.

Though government officials dismissed the confrontations with reporters from outlets VOD and TN Hot News as a matter of enforcing public order, media advocates are again sounding the alarm of ever-tightening restrictions of press freedom in Cambodia.

VOD reporter Khut Sokun, 33, said he had arrived at about 11 a.m. at the scene of a dispute in the Krakor district of Pursat province when an armed man in military uniform approached and seized his smartphone, recorder and notebook.

“I parked my motorbike and rushed to report,” Sokun told CamboJA of the day’s work in Ansar Chambak commune. “I turned on my recorder, and wrote what they were saying, but after that one official came to ask my identity, and where I had come from.”

Authorities had come to tell villagers mostly from the nearby Boribor district of Kampong Chhnang province to stop cultivating paddy rice in a location deemed state land, an area that authorities are measuring to reserve as a social land concession. They had come on Tuesday with military police, at least one of whom eventually focused on Sokun.

“I told him that I am a reporter at VOD, and I came to report something related to land issues, and he asked me to delete the pictures I’d taken from my smartphone,” Sokun recalled. “A man with a RCAF uniform and an AK-47 confiscated my recorder and notebook. They also tore up my notes of what I wrote and [deleted] audio from the recorder.”

Sokun said authorities returned his equipment more than a half-hour after talking with Pursat province Deputy Governor Cheng Lai, who had led the meeting to resolve the dispute.

“I tried to ask him why they didn’t allow pictures and reporting, but they did not tell me the reason,” Sokun said. “I think that it was threatening, intimidation, and it has restricted the right of press freedom because I did nothing wrong. I just went down to report and listen to what [the villagers] were saying.”

A VOD colleague who interviewed Cheng Lai after the incident told Sokun the deputy governor had claimed informally that his reporting on Tuesday had caused incitement among the villagers, a potentially serious charge often used to silence dissent. After hearing of this allegation, Sokun said that he is now scared to report land disputes in that area.

“Now, I dare not report this story because I am afraid of the accusation. I am also living near that area,” he said. “And yes, I am worried about my security and safety.”

Lai denied the accusation of harassment to CamboJA, saying officials had confronted the journalist only to learn who he was. Though he confirmed Sokun’s recorder had been confiscated and later returned, he denied that anyone had destroyed the reporter’s notes.

“Our authorities were working [to resolve the land dispute] and we did not know who he was, and at that time there were military police, police and soldiers accompanying me,” he said.

“We just asked what he was doing,” Lai said, adding that any claim otherwise was subjective. “It is just their opinion, because no one threatened him.”

As for the land dispute, Lai said people who have cultivated the area for a long time will be excluded from government action but that newcomers will have their access revoked. He said a directive was issued in 2017 to prepare a 5,400 hectare social land concession to benefit 3,000 families in the Ansar Chambak commune.

Though the deputy governor described the encounter with Sokun as benign, at least one witness described it otherwise.

“In fact, I saw they [authorities] scuffled with him, seized his phone and deleted pictures, and checked his press card,” said Pen Phol, 43, who attended Tuesday’s meeting and said authorities had not allowed photography and reporting. “I feel pity for him because he is a journalist that comes to help villagers who are suffering.”

After the confrontation, Phol said she didn’t see anything else, as authorities then dispersed the gathered villagers.

Phol is now concerned authorities will take her land away, noting that her family has been cultivating about 2 hectares since the 1980s.

“I am worried because I heard that they will revoke our land and provide it to other villagers,” she said.

When asked about the incident at Ansar Chambak, Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn said local authorities had only implemented the law in their jurisdiction to maintain security and public order.

“Authorities and police have their duty to fulfill too,” he said, declining to comment further.

But Sokun wasn’t the only reporter to face a confrontation Tuesday from authorities while reporting on a land dispute case.

Keo Ratana, 36, journalist and publisher of TN TV, or TN Hot News Online, said that he suffered harassment while covering villagers protesting that same day against a decision of the Kampong Chhnang Provincial Court in favor of a wealthier landholder.

The protest was complicated when a bodyguard named Lon Leng intervened apparently on behalf of the landholder and, according to Ratana, physically confronted the journalist at the event. Ratana said Pheng ordered police to detain the reporter, but the officers did not due to the many villagers around him.

“He came and pushed me away and attempted to use violence, and I pushed his hand back,” Ratana said of the bodyguard. “As a journalist, I think it is a threat to press freedom as we carry out our professional journalism.”

Ratana was previously arrested in July 2019 by military police for his role in covering a long-running land dispute in Sihanoukville between local villagers and the Thai Boon Roong development company.

Ith Sothoeuth, media director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, condemned the harassment against working journalists who amplify important viewpoints for the public to hear.

“For me, it seriously threatens press freedom because journalists have just gone to fulfill their duty in reporting land disputes between villagers,” he said of the Tuesday incidents.

Sotheouth, whose center produces VOD, said the media plays a significant role in a democratic society by providing voices for those who can’t express their concerns by themselves to the government or the general public.

“It is an extreme violation of press freedom in Cambodia, while it has already narrowed its space,” he said, pointing to the confrontation in Ansar Chambak.

Nop Vy, executive director at CamboJA, said that any activities that obstruct the work of journalists run directly against government policy to cooperate with the press.

“It is a message of warning and intimidation to the duty of journalists,” he said, urging officials and the head of state to review law enforcement policies of lower authorities and advise them on correct implementation.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information said local and foreign media coverage of the red zone has “confused the public and provoked social chaos that will lead to more COVID-19 spreading.”

“In order to protect social security and prevent COVID-19 from spreading, the Ministry of Information is advising journalists to halt all actions immediately,” it said in a statement issued Tuesday. “In the event that people continue to ignore this notice, [we] will take legal action.”

Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn told RFA that journalists who went to “red zone” areas and broadcast live via social media made comments without any medical foundation that might risk the spread of the highly contagious virus. He also said that some reporters chased ambulances during live broadcasts.

“If they comply with the law, then they can continue their work,” he said.

Journalist Leng Det said even though he supports the ministry’s order, he wants the media to work with authorities so reporters can provide accurate news.

“In order to get accurate news, we need many sources,” he said. “We don’t have to chase ambulances and police to tell the news.”

Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, said preventing the media from covering news in red zones will not be in villagers’ best interest, and he insisted that those who have received training on reporting on the coronavirus pandemic be allowed to cover news freely.

“I am very concerned that the ministry will completely ban journalists [from covering the red zone],” he said. “So far, journalists have broadcast about food shortages and people’s appeals to get food aid into the red zone. This has shown that journalists have contributed to disseminating news.”

Three Mother Nature environmentalists were sentenced to jail for 18 to 20 months for incitement over their activism, while two others, including the group’s founder, were also found guilty in absentia.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced the verdict on Wednesday morning in a courtroom newly equipped with transparent screens and other Covid-19 preventative measures. Judge Li Sokha, wearing a mask, read out the verdict as the three defendants, Phuon Keoreaksmey, Long Kunthea and Thun Ratha, stood up holding hands.

Sokha said that based on the evidence, witnesses and the answers of the defendants, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court concluded that the three were guilty of incitement.

Ratha was handed 20 months in jail and a fine of 4 million riel, or about $1,000, for incitement to disturb social security. Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the group’s co-founder who has been deported from Cambodia, was given the same sentence for being an accomplice.

Keoreaksmey, Kunthea and another activist tried in absentia, Chea Kunthin, were given 18 months and the same 4 million riel fine.

The court also issued arrest warrants against Gonzalez-Davidson and Kunthin and ordered the confiscation of materials belonging to them.

Ratha said aloud to reporters as he departed the courtroom: “This is very unjust. Sentencing people who just care about nature … they are very eager for trials.”

“The Khmer court is like this. Please tell people that we are still strong,” he said.

Defense lawyer Sam Chamroeun said he would discuss the verdict and a possible appeal with his clients.

Kunthea, Ratha and Keokeaksmey were arrested in September while planning a one-woman march by Kunthea to raise awareness about the infilling of Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s last lakes.

Kandal provincial authorities have told farmers to stop posting photos of vegetables spoiling in their fields without a market amid lockdowns as they were affecting morale, an official said.

Hor Sophal, deputy director of the Kandal department of agriculture, said his department had visited farmers in Sa’ang district on Friday. There were in fact vegetables that farmers could not find a market for due to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdowns in the major markets of Phnom Penh and Takhmao city, he said.

But the officials had told the farmers to stop posting pictures publicly because it affected the morale of other farmers and affected society, Sophal said.

“This is his second time, so we went to instruct him, and now he took note and said [he would] stop posting in public,” he said about Tai Song, one farmer who had been posting photos to Facebook.

Song has uploaded pictures about having to clear and throw away his vegetables amid the lockdown’s closure of markets.

Song told VOD that he had been pressured to sign a contract saying he would stop.

“I’m very disappointed and have nothing to say to them,” Song said. “I asked them to go take a look at the vegetables in my village, but they didn’t go to look. Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane will be plowed in the future as well, and there’s no less than thousands of tons of vegetables that they did not help to find a solution for. They just ordered me.”

“They no longer allowed me to post and use Facebook extensively. Me!” he continued. “I’m just a normal farmer. … I don’t know what they think that they ordered me like this.”

Another farmer, who gave his name only as Bunly, said several farmers had posted the photos so that authorities are aware of problems and can help find solutions.

“They came down to hide the difficulties of the farmers, so we don’t know what to say when they spoke those words. We are discouraged because we give them information so that they can help solve it, but instead they say that [our] posting is [intended] to pollute society,” he said. “There should be encouragement to farmers who are smart in urging superiors to help find a market. But they turned on us to tell us to end the sharing, and not say that there is no market. But every day, there really is no market.”

The letter Song signed says the farmer must first provide information to local authorities, not post it publicly. This is to avoid sharing incomplete information, misleading the public and undermining the efforts of officials, the letter says.

Photos showing the destruction of vegetables affect public morale and feeling, and the photos can incite discrimination, the letter says.

Incitement to discriminate is a criminal charge that applies to inciting malice or violence against a particular ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, and carries a prison term of up to three years.

About 100 residents in a Phnom Penh lockdown zone protested for food on Thursday night, according to a witness, as the local commune chief labeled the protesters an “opposition group” who are “not poor” and “give the authorities headaches.”

Stung Meanchey II commune chief Touch Sam Ol, in Meanchey district, said the protest was in Phneat village, and authorities would be distributing food to the residents on Friday morning.

“We hadn’t been able to [distribute food] in time for them because there have been too many and the supplies have not arrived on time, and there has been only rice so we couldn’t distribute just rice,” Sam Ol said late Thursday.

However, he said there was a “mastermind” behind the protest.

“In short, they are an opposition group and they are not poor,” he said. “The majority are rich, and firstly they were angry with us because we blocked the road … and they could not earn money to support their living.”

A few of the protesters had even received gifts of food from the state already, he added. “It gives the authorities headaches,” he said.

He also denied that the residents were hungry.

“The most important issue is the blocking of the road, which means they cannot do their business,” he said. “So they linked the blocking of the road with starvation.”

Stung Meanchey II is part of Phnom Penh’s red-zone restrictions due to high numbers of Covid-19 cases linked to garment factory workers living there. The government shut down markets and initially said the Commerce Ministry would take over all food sales in red zones, though local authorities have since allowed some vendors to sell in open, outdoor areas. The government has also set up a Telegram group so people in need can ask for donations for food, and it has been flooded with thousands of messages.

Mao Thora, a restaurant worker near Thursday’s protest, said about 100 people had gathered on the street, some carrying banners saying “My village is starving.”

The protesters had said the village had yet to receive food donations from the state, and without the ability to run their businesses they couldn’t pay rent, according to Thora. Some were workers who could not get to their workplaces, while others were small business owners who had been forced to suspend their operations, she said.

“It was crowded so I did not go very close to them since I am afraid of infection since I am in the red zone. They gathered and protested to demand that the authorities quickly provide food donations for them,” she 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.

“What they are looking for — thumbprints — that is against the Covid-19 rules,” Khuong Sreng said.

The activists had admitted their guilt and were released, he said, adding that such actions could lead to legal action if they were infected with Covid-19 and had transmitted the disease to others.

The governor added that they were focusing on the wrong issue at the wrong time.

“At this time, they should be holding banners and telling all people to wear masks to protect themselves from Covid-19,” Sreng said. “That would be the most appropriate.”

Keo Tith Lida, president of the Women’s Association for Society, said three of her members had been arrested on Wednesday while making copies of their petition to deliver to Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday.

She and two other members went to the Stung Meanchey 1 commune police station to try to secure the others’ release, but they were also detained, Tith Lida said.

The group has been collecting thumbprints for a petition calling on the government to ease people’s financial burdens. The petition suggests suspending payments to microfinance institutions and banks, halting water and electricity bills, reducing the price of gasoline, or halving businesses’ rent for three to six months.

Tith Lida said the six activists were detained overnight and released around 5 p.m. on Thursday.

“We were asked to make a contract … to not gather youths, to not collect thumbprints during Covid, and to not make any propaganda,” she said.

The campaign had now been suspended, she said.

Am Sam Ath, rights group Licadho’s monitoring manager, said everyone should be following the Health Ministry’s Covid-19 guidelines.

“There should be a discussion about solutions, and, in the future, they will follow the measures of the Ministry of Health and of the authorities about preventing the spread of Covid-19. That would be good,” Sam Ath said.

Tith Lida previously said the group had collected more than 200 thumbprints for its petition.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to tens of thousands of job losses in Cambodia, with tourism having plummeted amid disruptions to global travel, and garment factories losing orders due to suppressed worldwide consumer demand.

More than 700,000 households, or about 2 million people, have received emergency cash handouts as part of the government’s IDPoor program, the Planning Ministry said last month.

Sitanan Satsaksit was on the phone to her brother early in the evening on 4 June when he told her to hold the line. Wanchalearm, also known as Tar, was handing over a few dollars for meatballs at a stall opposite his home in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Then Sitanan heard noise coming from the other end of the line.

"I heard a loud bang. At first I thought he had a car accident as he shouted 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe,'" she tells the BBC.

Sitanan could hear the screams of her brother as men shouted in Khmer, a language she doesn't understand.

But her brother had not been hit by a car - he was being kidnapped.

Witnesses at the scene say they saw a group of armed men bundling Wanchalearm into a black SUV. As he shouted for help in Khmer, some people started moving towards him, but the armed abductors warned them to back off, before speeding away.

Confused and terrified, Sitanan could hear the muffled voice of her brother for another 30 minutes. Then the line went dead.

A friend of Wanchalearm made some inquiries for her.

"Twenty minutes later, this person called me back to say: 'Keep calm sister, Tar was abducted,'" she recalls.

Wanchalearm Satsaksit, 37, a prominent Thai pro-democracy activist who had lived in exile in Cambodia since 2014, has not been seen since. He is the ninth exiled critic of Thailand's military and monarchy to become a victim of enforced disappearance in recent years.

A popular and colourful character, Wanchalearm's activism started more than a decade ago, primarily focusing on gender and LGBT rights in Thailand. Over time, his interest started to shift to broader calls for democracy in the country, says Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch Asia and friend of Wanchalearm.

By the time of the 2014 military coup led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, Wanchalearm was affiliated with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), also known as the Red Shirts. The group was first formed in 2006 to oppose an earlier military coup which overthrew then prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Wanchalearm was angered by what he saw as yet another affront to democracy by the military in 2014. The new junta wasted little time in rooting out its critics.

Soon after the coup, Wanchalearm's face appeared on TV and he was called to attend a meeting at a military camp, Sunai says. He didn't turn up. Wanchalearm knew this meant he needed to flee his homeland and start a new life in Cambodia.

Once in Phnom Penh, Wanchalearm settled into his new surroundings. But while he had swapped the dangers of Thailand for relative safety in the leafy outskirts of the Cambodian capital, he was still building up an online following in his homeland through his witty takedowns of the Thai government.

"He sees himself as a satirist, almost like a political comedian," Sunai says. "He made fun continuously of the military junta. He made fun of Gen Prayuth, who at that time was leader of the coup group, he made fun of other generals.

"He exposed what he considered to be stupid blunders of the junta using the dialect of north-easterners," he adds. "Most of them are poor and he is from that region. He did it to show that a commoner can make fun of those in power. That seemed to be the way of getting even with the oppressors."

But his playful poking did not go unnoticed.

In June 2018, Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant for Wanchalearm based on allegations he violated the Computer-Related Crime Act - which criminalises writing that incites unrest - through his Facebook page. The police vowed to bring him back to Thailand.

Wanchalearm was just one of many Thai exiles speaking out from the perceived safety of a neighbouring country. But in reality, doing so is becoming increasingly perilous.

At least eight other pro-democracy activists have disappeared since the 2014 coup.

The bodies of exiled critics Chatcharn Buppawan and Kraidej Luelert were found disembowelled and stuffed with concrete along the Mekong River border with Laos last year. The Thai army says it had no knowledge of what had happened. Jakrapob Penkair, who served as government spokesman under Thaksin Shinawatra, has been living in exile since 2009 after he says he received a tip-off that he was to be killed. He has known Wanchalearm for many years.

Speaking to the BBC from an undisclosed location, Jakrapob says he was shocked by his friend's disappearance due to the light-hearted nature of his activism. He sees almost no chance that Wanchalearm is still alive.

"I think the message is: 'Let's kill these folks. These are outsiders, these are people who are different from us and they should be killed in order to bring Thailand back to normalcy,'" he says.

"But nothing could be more wrong in that interpretation. I believe their decision to kidnap and murder Tar, and others before him, has been subconsciously radicalising the people.

"Like it or not, I think Tar's disappearance and his murder could be a turning point."

Wanchalearm's disappearance sparked protests in Bangkok, with demonstrators accusing the Thai government of involvement, while demanding the Cambodian government investigate the case fully. Posters of Wanchalearm and other disappeared activists have been cropping up around the city.

#SaveWanchalearm was trending on Thai Twitter in the days following his abduction.

The hashtag "#abolish112" was also written or retweeted more than 450,000 times. This is a reference to Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code, which states: "Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, Heir-Apparent or Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to 15 years".

Some of the disappeared dissidents were accused of violating the article. Any public questioning of the monarchy in Thailand was until recently almost unheard of.

Many activists believe this abduction is linked to the palace, but the strict laws against any negative comment on the monarchy make this a dangerous link to explore or investigate.

Despite widespread outrage over the kidnapping of Wanchalearm, few are holding out much hope for his return.

"The abduction is not for money, it's not a private matter. There is no need to keep him alive," says Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, a prominent activist who served seven years in jail on charges of lese majeste - or "insulting the monarchy" - and defamation.

"The objective of kidnapping is to kill him and to create the atmosphere of fear in Thailand and other countries where [Thai] people are active in criticising the monarchy," adds Somyot, whose daughter was once in a long-term relationship with Wanchalearm.

Somyot was in little doubt as to who was behind the disappearance.

"The government knows very well about this kidnap and disappearance. I can insist that the government are the ones behind this violation," he says.

Thai government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat told the BBC: "We have no idea what happened to him.

"We don't do anything in that category of invading into other countries. They have their own law and control," she said.

"The person who can answer that question best should be the government of Cambodia because they know what happened in that country to this person."

In response to questions raised by opposition politicians in parliament, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said that Wanchalearm did not have political refugee status, so Thailand had to wait for Cambodia to finish its investigation.

The spokesman of the Cambodian interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment. A justice ministry spokesman told Voice of Democracy last week that investigations are under way to ascertain "whether the news is true or not".

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Cambodia and Laos have obviously decided to look the other way as now nine prominent Thai exiles have been abducted, and likely killed, by unknown men."

The Thai government is pursuing a "quid pro quo" with its two neighbours, he said, accusing Bangkok of making Thailand "off limits" to Cambodian opposition figures.

"You can be sure there will be more refugees on the chopping block unless governments around the world start publicly demanding answers and accountability from leaders of these three rights abusing governments," he said.

Sunai Phasuk says Cambodia must investigate fully what has happened to Wanchalearm if it expects to be seen as a country that has "improved from a lawless society into a country with due process".

"A crime like this cannot happen in broad daylight. This is a test case for Cambodia," he says.

But Sitanan has little hope of ever seeing Wanchalearm alive again and is just trying to make sense of why someone would want to kill her younger brother.

"I want to know if someone has his own opinion, does he need to be so severely punished?" she asks.

"He didn't rob anyone, he didn't rape anyone. He just thinks differently. Do you really need to kill him?"

A Siem Reap-based journalist says he fears he is being targeted by illegal loggers after being beaten at night as he slept in a hammock outside Beng Mealea temple.

Pran Sean, the publisher of Anachak Khmer, a digital news outlet and quarterly newspaper, said he was driving a car to his home after covering news in Preah Vihear province on Sunday when he became tired and decided to sleep outside the temple in Siem Reap’s Svay Loeu district.

“I was too tired and started to tie up a hammock to rest. Later, around 12 o’clock, two men came out of the forest and attacked me,” Sean said.

A cut on his head required 20 stitches, and the attackers broke two of his teeth, he said.

Sean said he thought the attack was premeditated, and retribution for writing articles about illegal timber trading. “As a journalist, I write a lot of information related to crimes,” he said.

Svay Loeu district police chief Sun Eng said police were working on the case.

“It is difficult, brother. The victim went to sleep in the middle of the forest,” Eng said. “So far, we have not yet identified or arrested any suspects. All in all, we are monitoring and investigating.”

Cambodian Journalists Alliance executive director Nop Vy said he hoped the attackers would be found, as journalists in the country often faced the risk of violence.

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.

Mey Sophorn, 41, and Dos Kimteav, 43, sat in the shade around the corner from City Mall, across the street from the court, around 10 a.m. on Thursday. Kimteav appeared dejected, while Sophorn’s face was hidden behind a surgical mask. They still had not eaten, they said.

“The food vendor would not dare to sell to us,” said Sophorn. “We felt hurt. We had money.”

Just before 8 a.m., the pair, among demonstrators calling for the release of jailed opposition members, initially tried to approach the street seller, stationed outside the mall on Charles de Gaulle Blvd., but was rebuffed by guards, Sophorn said.

“The security guards said that if we didn’t leave, they would stop them from selling,” she added

Kimteav said the guards had argued that the breakfast could turn into a larger gathering of protesters if they sat down around the seller.

One guard then approached the cart, allegedly telling the vendor and her two assistants, “Don’t sell it, don’t sell it, be careful, be careful of not being allowed to sell here,” according to Kimteav.

In recent months, guards have increasingly prohibited gatherings near the court, including confining protesters and journalists to the nearby Olympic Stadium grounds during prominent trial dates.

When VOD arrived at the scene around 10 a.m., five security guards sat on plastic chairs around the vendor eating, and this reporter was also able to order pork and rice with a fried egg.

The street vendor later acknowledged that a guard had spoken to her. If she sold to the women and the women caused trouble, she wouldn’t be allowed to continue her business, the vendor said she was told. The vendor declined to give her name or further details, saying she was afraid she would face problems.

It could not be ascertained for which institution the allegedly breakfast-blocking guards worked.

Chan Rithy, Phnom Penh’s chief of municipal security guards, said he had no information about Thursday’s enforcement. Prampi Makara district governor Lim Sophea and deputy governor Chea Sotheara said they were too busy to comment.

Phnom Penh City Hall spokesperson Met Measpheakdey, however, said he would look into the case. He said he needed more time to find out if the allegations were true.

“I will research and ask them if there was such a case or not, so I can comment,” Measpheakdey said on Thursday.

Reached on Friday, the spokesperson said he had checked with local authorities and none had reported the incident described by the two protesters, although Measpheakdey did not specify which authorities he asked about the alleged breakfast ban.

“There is no such case. I do not know​ which security guards would have led them to make these claims. No one forbids anyone to eat. It seems wrong,” he said.

Am Sam Ath, monitoring manager for human rights group Licadho, said that if the protesters’ account was accurate, the actions of a couple of guards could tarnish the image of authorities as a whole.

“There is no right to ban anyone from selling or eating,” he said. “There can be no ban on eating.”

The winner of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize Ouch Leng and four other forestry activists were sent to Kratie Provincial Court yesterday after being accused of putting signs up in a protected area.

On Friday, Leng, Heng Sros, Man Muth, Heng Run and Phong Cheang hung up signs in Prey Lang forest saying: “Please help preserve our ancestral heritage forest”.

Human rights Adhoc senior investigator Soeng Sen Karuna said yesterday if activists enter the forest just to monitor, gather information and hang signs to protect against deforestation, the authorities should not arrest them.

“Environment officials should take action on bad people who go into the forest, but not the activists who just want to prevent deforestation,” he claimed.

“According to the forest law, it will be implemented on people who commit crimes such as the destruction of natural resources, deforestation or killing wildlife,” he said.

Sen Karuna added that the leadership should intervene in this matter and not allow officials to take such action against activists who assist the government in preventing and protecting natural resources in Cambodia.

“Arresting an activist who uses their rights to protect the forests is not right and could be criticised by the international community, plus it is an opportunity for bad people to continue to destroy the forest,” he said.

Choub Sreynuth, wife of Sros, said she has asked the authorities to release her husband and the other activists.

“The activists only participated in protecting natural resources, but they have been arrested like they are perpetrators,” she said.

The provincial Environment Department director Duong Chhay Savuth said that according to Article 11 of the protected area law, all entry and exit to protected areas must be authorised.

He said the five activists went into Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary without asking permission. “The officials detained them for questioning for 48 hours on Friday, and sent them to the provincial court yesterday,” Savuth said.

Prosecutor Keo Socheat said yesterday the five activists are being detained and will be questioned further today.

Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said yesterday, park rangers are judicial police officers who have the duty to protect and conserve natural resources in accordance with the law in preventing and suppressing illegal activities that take place in the protected area. No matter who the person is, if the rangers find that the act is not in accordance with the law, they must comply with the law.

“The suspects’ response stated that they were operating in the protected area to take pictures to seek financial support from various donors. This clearly shows the malicious intentions of some groups who take refuge under the label of environmentalists and forest activists who use bad methods to benefit their party and serve a corrupt agenda,” Pheaktra said.

He said that the Ministry of Environment calls on and encourages some donors to provide support to associations and NGOs that are properly registered and encourage law-abiding associations and NGOs.

Pheaktra added that the ministry welcomes the participation of associations and NGOs in the protection and conservation of natural resources, but that they must enter through the legal channels.

Ouch Leng, the working group leader of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force was selected as the winner of The Goldman Environmental Prize 2016, presented by the Gold Fund for Global Environmental Heroes 2016 in San Francisco, United States.

Sneha Cheat journalist Keo Hour is arrested by a group of police officers in Kampong Chhnang’s provincial capital af ter Huo interviewed peaceful protestors who had gathered outside the Chieb commune office over a land conf lict earlier in May. He is not told the reason for his arrest. He was subsequently bailed, but the criminal charges remain over his head.

A member of the Prey Lang Community Network,a local activist group of volunteer forest rangers that has been risking their lives to peaceably protect the area from illegal logging and large-scale land-grabbing since 2007., is threatened by a known timber trader with political connections while taking photos of illegal timber being transported at night. The trader confiscated the forest activist’s phone and filed a complaint at the district militar y police station demanding compensation for having taken photos of him without permission.

Several members of Cambodian youth group Khmer Thavrak including human rights activist Hun Vannak are arrested and held for hours of questioning at the Battambang provincial police station for their involvement in a peaceful protest calling on microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks to suspend loan repayments among the economic crisis caused by COVID-19. Four monks from different pagodas were also threatened with expulsion from their pagodas for joining the non-violent demonstrations.

Roughly 40 youth and environmental activists including Natural Resources Protection Group (NRPG) president Chheuy Odorm Reaksmey, the son of murdered environmental activist Chut Wutty, are stopped from gathering in Prey Lang forest to commemorate the anniversar y of Wutty’s death by ten armed environmental rangers and threatened with arrest. The armed men were led by provincial environment department chief Meas Nhoem, as well as the Rovieng deputy district governor and accompanied by local health officials who claimed that the ban was intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. The next day, commander of Intervention Brigade No. 3 Srey Deuk sent 50 soldiers into the forest to search for five environmental activists – Ouch Leng, Khem Sokhy, Srey Thei, Srey Tin and Heng Srar – who had attended the event.

A community representative and four CCFC staff are prevented from conducting a training on human rights and farming to a group of 30 villagers in Prey Veng province’s Ba Phnom district. The staff, who were working to set up a community saving group, were threatened with arrest by the deputy commune police chief if they continued with the training.

Ten volunteer staff from a local wild life, forests and fisheries protection and conservation organisation are illegally detained by armed forces in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nob district while monitoring sand-dredging activities in the coastal province. Af ter eight months in pre-trial detention, they are handed a suspended sentence of two years in prison.

Sok Kin, president of the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union of Cambodia (BWTUC) is harassed by local authorities on the orders of Sen Sok district governor Mouv Manit while conducting a meeting with donors and colleagues at his office in Phnom Penh. Authorities demanded to know the reason for the meeting, accused Kin of not having sought permission from local officials and allegedly urged the union official to join the ruling party.

A community representative in Preah Sihanouk province is threatened with arrest by a deputy district police chief af ter more than a hundred people from ten different communities, including six affected by land conf licts across the province, planned to celebrate International Human Rights Day. Members of the communities locked in land disputes had thumbprinted a petition calling on local authorities to find a resolution to the conf licts.

A monk living in a forest pagoda in Kampong Speu province is woken by gunshots fired at the temple’s pillars by an unknown shooter. The monk, who had previously joined in environmental activism alongside the Mother Nature movement and worked to protect the wild trees and animals of his forest home, also found a threatening message stuck on a tree warning that there would be no peace if the “bad monk” continued his activism.

Community land activist Ther Then is arrested by police in Kampong Thom province’s Stoung district and sent to the provincial prison af ter giving an interview to Radio Free Asia (RFA). The warrant, which accused Then of giving false information to the radio station, was issued following a complaint filed by Korm Saroeurn, former advisor to interior minister Sar Kheng. On March 12, 2019, Ther Then had shared with RFA grievances of local residents with regards to access to water to irrigate their fields.

An ADHOC rights worker in Kampong Cham province is threatened over the phone by the commune police chief af ter holding a meeting with 35 local community members to discuss freedom of expression.

24-year-old rapper Chhun Dymey is confronted by two police officers in Siem Reap who demand to see his birth certificate, job and family book. Dymey had recently released a song – “This Society” – lashing out at widespread social injustice including corruption, the plight of poor communities and ongoing land disputes. Dymey later took the song down from his social media accounts.

More than 60 people from four different communities across Kampong Cham province’s Memot district are prevented from celebrating International Women’s Day by Memot district governor Cheng Bunna, who along with commune officials claimed that the communities had not registered their plans with local authorities. A Tunlong community representative is threatened with imprisonment if the celebrations go ahead as planned.

The Venerable Hor Sokhon, the chief monk of Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov pagoda, is forcibly defrocked by high-ranking officials from the Ministr y of Cults and Religion before a mixed force of more than 50 police officers on the orders of the capital’s governor Khuong Sreng. Sokhon had posted content on social media criticising the government’s failure to retain full tariff-free access to the European Union through the Ever ything but Arms (EBA) trade scheme due to ongoing human rights abuses in Cambodia.