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| Cambodian police pull the body of journalist Hang Serei Oudom from a car trunk in Ratanakiri province on September 11, 2012. A Cambodian court acquitted a military policeman Wednesday over the brutal killing of a journalist who exposed illegal logging, a lawyer said, as the reporter's family vowed to keep fighting for justice |
AFP News – August 28 ,2013
A Cambodian court acquitted a military policeman Wednesday over the brutal killing of a journalist who exposed illegal logging, a lawyer said, as the reporter's family vowed to keep fighting for justice.
Ean Bunheng and his wife were arrested in September last year, days after the body of Hang Serei Oudom, a reporter at local-language Vorakchun Khmer Daily, was found in the boot of his own car in northern Ratanakiri Province. Police at the time said he appeared to have suffered axe blows to the head.
"The court dropped the charges against both my clients because there is no evidence," said defence lawyer Tep Monicheat. Court officials could not be reached for comment.
The accused pair lived at a karaoke parlour where the reporter was last seen. Nobody else has been arrested over his death.
Oudom's wife Im Chanty told AFP that she could not accept the ruling, which can be appealed at the prosecution's request within 15 days.
"The court's decision is very unjust," she told AFP. "I will ask rights activists to help me fight the case."
Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, told AFP that the ruling reflected the "impunity" in the country.
Environmental activists regularly face threats in Cambodia, where land grabbing has become a major source of tension.
In his final article, on September 6, Oudom accused the military policeman son of a senior provincial official of smuggling logs in military-plated vehicles and extorting money from people who were legally transporting wood.
Fellow reporters had expressed fears for Oudom's safety because of his exposes, activists said.
Oudom's killing came less than six months after prominent environmentalist Chhut Vuthy was shot dead by a military policeman after he refused to hand over pictures showing logging in the southwestern Koh Kong Province.
The officer who shot Vuthy was then himself accidentally killed with his own weapon when a private security guard tried to disarm him, according to a government probe.
In its haste to develop the impoverished nation, the Cambodian government has been criticised for allowing well-connected firms to clear hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest land -- including in protected zones -- for everything from rubber and sugar cane plantations to hydropower dams.
Rampant illegal logging contributed to a sharp drop in Cambodia's forest cover from 73 percent in 1990 to 57 percent in 2010, according to the United Nations.
3 comments:
This just prove that hun sen will do anything..include killing all of you..
Koh Tral Island must not be forgotten
By “any patriot Khmers”
Why do Koh Tral Island, known in Vietnam as Phu Quoc, a sea and land area covering proximately over 30,000 km2 [Note: the actual land size of Koh Tral itself is 574 square kilometres (222 sq miles)] have been lost to Vietnam by whose treaty? Why don’t Cambodia government be transparent and explain to Cambodia army at front line and the whole nation about this? Why don't they include this into education system? Why?
Cambodian armies are fighting at front line for 4.6 km2 on the Thai border and what's about over 30,000km2 of Cambodia to Vietnam. Nobody dare to talk about it! Why? Cambodian armies you are decide the fate of your nation, Cambodian army as well as Cambodian people must rethink about this again and again. Is it fair?
Koh Tral Island, the sea and land area of over 30,000 square kilometres have been lost to Vietnam by the 1979 to 1985 treaties. The Cambodian army at front line as well as all Cambodian people must rethink again about these issues. Are Cambodian army fighting to protect the Cambodia Nation or protecting a very small group that own big lands, big properties or only protecting a small group but disguising as protecting the Khmer nation?
The Cambodian army at front lines suffer under rain, wind, bullets, bombs, lack of foods, lack of nutrition and their families have no health care assistance, no securities after they died but a very small group eat well, sleep well, sleep in first class hotel with air conditioning system with message from young girls, have first class medical care from oversea medical treatments, they are billionaires, millionaires who sell out the country to be rich and make the Cambodian people suffer everyday.
Who signed the treaty 1979-1985 that resulted in the loss over 30,000 km2 of Cambodia??? Why they are not being transparent and brave enough to inform all Cambodians and Cambodian army at front line about these issues? Why don't they include Koh Tral (Koh Tral size is bigger than the whole Phom Phen and bigger than Singapore [Note: Singapore's present land size is 704 km2 (271.8 sq mi)]) with heap of great natural resources, in the Cambodian education system?
Look at Hun Sen's families, relatives and friends- they are billionaires, millionaires. Where did they get the money from when we all just got out of war with empty hands [in 1979]? Hun Sen always say in his speeches that Cambodia had just risen up from the ashes of war, just got up from Year Zero with empty hands and how come they are billionaires, millionaires but 90% of innocent Cambodian people are so poor and struggling with their livelihood every day?
Whenever hun sen is in power Khmer still cry n killed, chittchitt
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