Human Rights Defenders Alert – Phnom Penh 15 August 2012
NGO worker summonsed by Phnom Penh Municipal Court
On 9 August 2012, the Phnom Penh
Municipal Court issued a citation, summonsing Chan Soveth, senior investigator
at the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (“ADHOC”) to appear
before Investigating Judge, Chhe Virak, on 24 August 2012, relating to a charge
of “providing assistance to a perpetrator”, under Article 544 of the Penal
Code.
The charge against Chan Soveth
follows a speech made by Prime Minister Hun Sen on 1 August accusing an unidentified
“human rights worker” of assisting criminals. It is believed that the human
rights worker referred to by the Prime Minister was Chan Soveth and that the accusation
against him is based on his human rights work with a land rights activist from
Kratie. The land rights activist in question was allegedly involved in a
secessionist movement, attempting to establish a state within a state, in Pro
Ma village, Kratie, the site of a 15,000-hectare land concession. On 16 May
this year, hundreds of armed police and military police stormed Pro Ma village,
in an effort to evict around 1,000 families living in the concession area. When
villagers, amongst them so-called secessionists, refused to move from their
land, the authorities opened fire, causing the death of 14-year-old Heng
Chantha. Evidence of a secessionist movement in Kratie has yet to be produced.
The charges faced by Chan Soveth
carry a potential sentence of one to three years imprisonment. ADHOC released a
statement yesterday to call upon partners to support the human rights worker
and to rally outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on the morning of his
questioning by the Investigating Judge.
For more information
please contact Suon Bunthoeun, CCHR Human Rights
Defenders Project Coordinator via telephone on 012 483 546 or email
bunthoeun@cchrcambodia.org
No comments:
Post a Comment