Judge Orders Reinvestigation in Bomb Plot Case

Som Ek seen taken to the court on 20 December 2009 (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 December 2009

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday ordered a reinvestigation of five bombing suspects, citing incomplete evidence by investigating judges.

The five suspects—Som Ek, 49; Loek Bun Nhien, 48; Hy Savoeung, 49; Poa Vannara, 59; and Chea Kimyan, 45—have undergone three hearings since Nov. 25.

They were arrested in January, following the discovery of two explosive devices outside of government buildings and were later additionally charged for detonating a device at the Vietnamese Friendship Monument in 2007.

The men are charged with forming a militant wing of a political movement, called the Tiger Head, “to plant bombs in order to create unrest and to oppose the government,” Phnom Penh prosecutor Hoeung Bunchea told the court Tuesday.

Phnom Penh judge Chay Kong ordered further investigation at Wednesday’s hearing, where all five suspects were present. No re-trial date was given.

Sam Sok Kong, defense for Sam Ek, called on the court to “speed up its reinvestigation and to open a case hearing as soon as possible.”

The court order showed a “weakness” in the investigation’s case, he said. “The investigation of the case has had one year. Why did the court announce that the case does not have enough evidence against the suspects?”

Defense for the suspects contend they had collaborated to form a political movement, called the Cambodian United Front, and had not engaged in military action.

Sam Sok Kong said Wednesday the case against his client was aimed against “the freedom to establish a political party.”

Bomb trial secretive, NGOs say

Alleged bomb suspect Som Ek (Photo: Cheat Khmer newspaper)

Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Written by Chrann Chamroeun and Thomas Gam Nielsen
The Phnom Penh Post

Four suspects have not been allowed access to lawyers

RIGHTS groups have called for the release of more details surrounding the arrest, interrogation and trial of four individuals charged in connection with bombs found in the capital earlier this month, saying the four have not been allowed access to legal council.

"After 24 hours in detention they should have been given access to a lawyer, but so far they have not been in contact with anyone," Chan Soveth, from the rights group Adhoc, told the Post Tuesday, adding that his organisation has provided lawyer Lung Lun to the family of Phy Savong, one of the suspects.

He added that suspects should have by now been allowed to see their families.

On Monday, the four suspects were charged by municipal court prosecutor Hing Bunchea with planning and executing a bomb plot in central Phnom Penh and recruiting and training terrorists. But on Tuesday, investigating judge Ker Sokhorn refused to confirm whether he had upheld the charges.

"It is very hard for me to tell whether I have issued a warrant or not to detain the four suspects. Just write that we are following court procedure," he said.

Witnesses at the court confirmed that they saw the suspects arriving Tuesday morning and leaving around noon.
The names of the accused have been made public, but rights groups say that it has been hard getting further access to information about the arrests.

Sok Phal, deputy commissioner of the National Police, who on Saturday presented evidence connecting the alleged mastermind Som Ek to an anti-government movement, declined to comment on the case as the matter was now in the hands of the court.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said that he did not have "competence to answer questions on the case, as long as it is pending in the court system".

Sok Sam Oeun, director of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, said he did not know whether the court was following correct procedures, as so little information was available.

"If they want to keep [the case] secret, they should not have arrested the suspects immediately," he said.

Terrorism charges in bomb plot

Houn Raksa, daughter of bomb plot suspect Phy Savong, begs for the release of her father at the front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court Monday night. Phy Savong and three other suspects were charged with two offences under Cambodia's anti-terrorism law and face up to 30 years in prison. (Photo by: Sovann Philong)

Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Written by Chrann Chamroeun and Thomas Gam Nielsen
The Phnom Penh Post

Former police official, SRP member among accused.

FOUR people, including a former provincial deputy police chief and an opposition party defector, were charged Monday under Cambodia's anti-terrorism law over an alleged bomb plot targeting the Defence Ministry and the state-run television station,TV3, officials say.

According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Hing Bunchea, the four face up to 30 years in prison if convicted on charges of delivering, placing, discharging or detonating an explosive or lethal device in a public place, and recruiting and training terrorists.

The charges stem from three small bombs discovered January 2 outside the Defence Ministry and TV3.

Included among the accused are Reach Samnang, Mondulkiri province's former deputy police chief, and Lek Bunnhean, a one-time Sam Rainsy Party member who defected to the ruling Cambodian People's Party and last year publicly accused opposition leader Sam Rainsy of involvement in the 1998 rocket attack allegedly targeting Prime Minister Hun Sen in Siem Reap.

Two former resistance fighters, Phy Savong and Som Ek, the alleged plot mastermind, also stand accused.

Investigating judge Ker Sokhorn said the case merited further scrutiny after 10 hours of interviews Monday.

His comments came a day after police said that Som Ek confessed to organising both the most recent bombing attempt and an earlier plot to blow up the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument in July 2007.

Two UN monitors at the court Monday were barred from the interviews, as were monitors from Cambodian rights groups Licadho and Adhoc.

Phy Savong's wife, Prum Thavy, said that her husband was seized at his home in Kandal province's Kien Svay district Thursday without explanation.

"It is a huge injustice. Police ... took him away in a car without explaining why or showing a warrant," she said outside court.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Scapegoats

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Suspects Responsible for Placing Explosive Devices in Phnom Penh Said Confessing

12 Jan 09
By Bunry
Koh Santepheap
Translated from Khmer by Anonymous

Phnom Penh: General Sok Phal, deputy commissioner general of the National Police Department [NPD], attended at a press conference held at the conference hall of the NPD headquarters on 9 January to show captured documents concerning the plot to place explosives in front of the Ministry of National Defense [MoND] and an area west of the Channel 3 TV station. During the conference pictures of the ringleaders behind the plot were shown to the local and international reporters following the arrest of four suspects. One remarkable point was that the suspects who were charged were not present at the conference

Gen. Sok Phal said that after discovering the explosives placed in front of the MoND and at the spot west of the Channel 3 TV station in the morning of 2 January, a special NPD unit following the tips from Prime Minister Hun Sen and Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng and under the direct leadership of the NPD Commissioner General proceeded to investigate and hunt for the culprits who placed the explosives at the two locations cited above. On 7 January the competent authorities found and arrested Som Ek, alias Srun Heng, alias Ti To, alias Chau Sakkda, alias Chea Kimhuon, alias Soeng Kamsan, alias Phat Vatthana, and alias Meng Saray, male, 46, native of Bet Thnu village, Prek Kak commune, Stoeng Trang district, Kampong Cham province, with current residence in Poipet commune, O Chreou district, Banteay Meanchey province.

This person was sent to the NPD the same night after the police searched and found in his possession some materials related to the methods of devising remote-controlled explosives.

During the press conference the police general revealed that Som Ek confessed his and his associates' major activities, confirming that:

(1) He ordered Sok Kimsovat and four other members to place three buckets of home-made explosives at the traffic light near the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument on 29 July 2007. At that time, one of the containers exploded by itself and two other were destroyed on the spot by a CMAC [Cambodian Mine Action Center] team. And at the end of July and the beginning of August 2007, the named Sok Kimsovat and four associates were arrested by the police. They are currently in jail at Prey Sar Prison;

(2) He was the one who ordered a three-man team to place the explosive devices in front of the MoND and west of the Channel 3 TV station on 2 December 2009 with the aim of causing the explosions to reverberate to other counties. This plan was discussed between himself and three associates in Aranyprathet, Thailand, before the explosives were placed at the two sites.

(3) He planned to set up an illegal armed movement in the form of a group of bandits in Mondolkiri and Kaoh Kong provinces and then take pictures of the group, which he would distribute in and outside the country in order to collect monetary contributions with which to carry on his activities.

The named Som Ek founded the so-called "Khmer National Liberation Front" with the sign of three tiger heads as symbol. As for the armed forces, they would be called "Khmer National Armed Forces."

The activities of this group mostly consisted of taking pictures for dissemination while some of its men would act as bandits, launching a few kidnapping and robbing sorties on the national highways.

Som Ek is a native of Prek Tanong commune, Kaoh Sotin district in Kampong Cham province. He was a soldier serving the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KP) at Ritthisen Camp and had been integrated by the MoND in 1993.

Som Ek spent a year and a half studying in the United States. He also attended courses in Malaysia, Thailand, and Burma. He learned technical tricks to produce explosives as weapons. Moreover, Som Ek also holds Thai nationality as he once was married to a Thai woman when he fled Cambodia. Som Ek's another offense was to counterfeit public documents of the MoND. He also has a Cambodian wife named Kim Lang, a 29-year-old vendor at Poipet market.

Gen. Sok Phal went on to say that the competent authorities now continue to seek to unmask and arrest more of Som Ek's associates. No details of this activity were made available to the reporters. At the direction of Prime Minister Hun Sen the specialized authorities must investigate this case in full.

General Sok Phal maintained that Som Ek is also an active member of the CFF [Cambodia Freedom Fights] and he has enjoyed backing in foreign countries.

Bombs discovered in Phnom Penh: the police present the alleged “brains” behind the operation

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 10/01/2009. Press conference held at the National Police headquarters concerning the January 2nd bombs. The police revealed the face of Som Ek, presumably responsible for the operations (Photo: Vandy Rattana)

10-01-2009
By Duong Sokha
Ka-set in English
Click here to read the article in French
Click here to read the article in Khmer

No suspects to present to the public but instead, so-called evidence of the guilt of at least one person out of four arrested after three expl osive devices were discovered on Friday January 2nd near the Ministry of Defence and the premises of television channel TV3 in Phnom Penh. At a press conference held on Saturday January 10th, Cambodia's national police deputy general commissioner Sok Phal revealed the name of the man said to be the brains behind the operations, a 48 year-old former soldier, arrested in Poipet on January 7th.

Leading a group of “bandits in the woods”
All four suspects will not be questioned before Monday January 12th but one of them, thought to be the group leader, confessed to having formed illegal forces with a view to destabilise the government. The national police deputy general commissioner reported that this might not be his first deed. He is also said to have plotted the explosion of a small bomb on July 29th 2007 near the Khmer-Viernamese Friendship monument in Phnom Penh. Five suspects were arrested days following the explosion and sent to jail. The man, from Kampong Cham, was also condemned to a three-year prison sentence in 2003 after being charged with using false documents when he was employed by the Ministry of Defence.

The plot instigator was reported to be called Som Ek but used a variety of names to disguise his identity – no less than 11 other names according to the police – and is allegedly the leader of a small group of “bandits in the woods” committing all sorts of crimes, from kidnappings to organised armed robberies on the national roads of Cambodia, and hiding in the forests of the Mondolkiri and Koh Kong provinces. Photos of Som Ek posing in the forests among his henchmen, all clad in military uniforms, were presented to the press.

The January 2nd operation
“By planting these devices, their aim was to bring attention to the group in order to become known abroad. By giving their movement publicity in the media, Som Ek's idea was to get funds from foreign countries to finance their operations. The pictures they took of themselves in the forests were equally to be used with the same logic and meant to widely circulate”, Sok Phal explains, adding that Som Ek started fomenting his plan back in October 2008 with three other accomplices in Thailand. He is said to hold Thai citizenship, also his wife's nationality.

According to the police, Som Ek chose three henchmen to plant on the roadside explosive devices not equipped with a detonator. The deputy commissioner, however, observed that the three suspects arrested as part of the investigation might not be directly involved, and therefore refused to reveal their identities. “We still have doubts as to their actual guilt...”

A movement aimed at following in the footsteps of the CFF?
Som Ek and his followers are said to have founded the “National Khmer Liberation Front”, the logo of which is a tiger, according to the police official. The former soldier, a member of a fighting group in the 1980s, finally entered the Ministry of Defence in 1993 not long after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

According to biographical elements revealed by Sok Phal, Som Ek spent a year in the United States and made several trips to Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar, always keeping in mind the same preoccupation: “learning how to make explosive devices”. And according to research led by the police, the man might have been a former active member of the supposed movement of sedition entitled the “Cambodian Freedom Fighters” (CFF) dismantled in January 2005 when its leader was arrested in the United States. “Som Ek's confession indicates that their movement might have some connections abroad... Like the CFF, in a way!”, the deputy commissioner pointed out.

Among other things, the police presented as evidence a scale model, that of a radio-controlled helicopter.

The police official stressed that the authorities did not consider this group as a dangerously threatening. He argued that its members would not be able to overthrow the government and estimated that they only acted in their own interest since their activities did not go beyond the line of highway crime. Still according to him, the group is not known to have ties with any political party. The deputy commissioner promised that the police would do their best to dismantle the network, said to spread as far as to the provinces of Kratie and Battambang.