This was the picture of Chhou Bandith appearing in court in March 2013, one year after his attach in February 2012.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia June 25, 2013 (AP) - A former Cambodian governor was convicted in absentia Tuesday of
shooting and wounding three garment workers and was sentenced to 18
months in prison, an outcome that rights groups say highlights the
impunity of the country's political elite.
Chhouk Bandith, former governor of Bavet town in southeastern Cambodia,
has been on the run for months and was not present at his trial.
The former official fled after the Feb. 20 attack in which he was named
the prime suspect in shooting three female protesters. The women were
seriously wounded by the gunshots while demonstrating outside their
factory with about 1,000 other workers for better working conditions and
benefits.
A prosecutor in December dropped the charges against Bandith, saying
there was no evidence to prove he was the gunman. The move sparked
outrage among rights groups and in March was overturned on appeal,
paving the way for his trial.
On Tuesday, the Svay Rieng provincial court convicted Bandith of
unintentionally wounding the protesters. Human rights groups had
criticized the charge as too lenient and had called for a stiffened
charge of attempted murder.
Rights groups welcomed the conviction but condemned the light sentence,
saying that several witnesses saw Bandith open fire into the crowd of
protesters.
"The sentence is little more than a slap on the wrist, and is emblematic
of Cambodia's pervasive culture of impunity for the well-connected
elite," said a joint statement issued by the Cambodian Community Legal
Education Center and Licado, the League for the Promotion and Defense of
Human Rights.
The rights groups called on authorities to find and arrest Bandith so
that he can serve his sentence and pay restitution to the victims.
Bandith was ordered to pay 38 million riel ($8,500) in compensation to
the three women.
Cambodia's judiciary is widely regarded as corrupt and susceptible to
political manipulation. International human rights groups accuse the
government of using the judiciary to silence its critics and to attack
human rights defenders and say the courts regularly fail to deliver
justice to the country's people, particularly the poor.
Cambodia's garment industry is the main foreign exchange earner for the
poor Southeast Asian country. It employs more than half a million
workers, most of whom are women. Garment exports last year totaled $4.6
billion, up from $4.3 billion the previous year.
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