Monday, 18 June 2012
By Khouth Sophak Chakrya
Phnom Penh Post
Sao Saroeun,
71, (centre) speaks to reporters yesterday after being released from
police custody on Friday. Photograph: Meng Kimlong/Phnom Penh Post
One of the two Boeung Kak lake residents released on bail from Prey Sar
prison on Friday is prepared to be a witness in the appeal trial of the
13 women convicted and sent to jail last month – but only if he is
invited to be, he said yesterday.
Sao Sareoun, 71, and Ly
Channary were released on the condition they report to police every two
weeks and do not change their addresses.
Sao Sareoun, who was
arrested outside the 13 women’s trial on May 24 as he tried to give
evidence, said he was willing to testify in next Wednesday’s hearing at
the Appeal Court, but did not want to find himself in more trouble by
doing so.
“I will do this if their defence lawyer wants me to,”
he said. “I want to request the court and all levels of the authorities
to take pity on the 13 Boeung Kak women.”
The women were arrested at Boeung Kak on May 22 as
protesters tried to rebuild a house on land cleared to make way for a
$79 million development by Shukaku, a company headed by CPP senator Lao
Meng Khin.
They were charged two days later with disputing authority and trespassing, and were tried, convicted and sentenced in three hours without a lawyer or any witnesses.
Sao
Sareoun said he was arrested when he tried to give the court a document
that showed some evictees had not received either a land title or
compensation.
Ly Channary was also arrested outside the court, and the pair were charged with the same offences as the 13 women.
“I don’t understand why the authorities arrested me and accused me,” Sao Sareoun said.
During
his imprisonment in Prey Sar’s Correctional Centre I, he spent time
living with 19 other people in a room that was barely seven square
metres in size, he said.
“It was tough. The other prisoners took pity on me, though, because of my age. They let me sleep,” Sao Sareoun said.
Harm
Sunrith, the lawyer for the 13 Boeung Kak women, did not say whether he
would call on Sao Sareoun to give evidence, adding that he had not yet
been formally told of the women’s appeal date.
“But we hope, and believe, the Appeal Court will drop the case and release my 13 defendants,” he said.
Seng Sy Vutha, deputy director of the Appeal Court, said yesterday the women’s hearing would be held on June 27 at 8:30am.
“For the case of the 13 Boeung Kak women, our court pays attention very much,” Seng Sy Vutha said.
The Ministry of Justice wrote to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on May 31, asking it to re-examine the case against the women.
The
case is also receiving global attention. US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton told Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong at a meeting in
Washington last week that the 13 women’s release would be “a sign of
support for freedom of expression”.
Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit
spokesman Ek Tha, who said after the trial on May 24 that the
government had nothing to do with the court’s decision, declined to
comment yesterday.
Am Sam Ath, technical adviser with the rights group Licadho,
welcomed Ly Channary and Sao Sareoun’s release and encouraged the court
to take it a step further and drop the charges against them.
Bo
Chhorvy, a representative of the protesters in the Boeung Kak community,
told the Post yesterday six of the 13 women prisoners who had been on a
hunger strike had ended it with the release of Ly Channary and Sao
Sareoun.
“They ate the beef and shellfish that I bought to give them, and they were smiling,” she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Khouth Sophak Chakrya at sophakchakrya.khouth@phnompenhpost.com
No comments:
Post a Comment