Asian NGOs condemn defamation suit on activist

Sam Chankea - Photo courtesy of ki-media.blogspot.com

27 February 2011
ALIRAN

More than two dozen Asian civil society groups have condemned the conviction of Sam Chankea, a Cambodian human rights defender, for the exercise of his right to freedom of expression.

We, the undersigned human rights NGOs, human rights defenders and women human rights defenders of Asia, deeply regret the conviction of Mr. Sam Chankea, provincial coordinator of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC).

Mr. Chankea is a human rights defender active in land rights issues in Kampong Chhnang province. He was charged with defamation under Article 305 of the New Penal Code by the KDC International Company, a development company allegedly owned by Lauk Chumteav Chea Kheng, the wife of the Minister of Mining and Energy in Cambodia. On 25 January 2011, the Kg. Chhnang Provincial Court ruled against Mr. Sam Chankea and ordered him to pay a 1 million Riel fine and an additional 3 million Riel in compensation. If he does not pay the 4 million Riel (approximately US$1,000), he faces imprisonment.

Mr. Sam Chankea was charged for defamation by the KDC International Company because of a statement he made during a radio interview on Radio Free Asia (RFA) on 26 December 2009. In this interview he expressed his opinion on an ongoing land case in Kampong Chhnang between 108 families and the KDC International Company. There is a pending case between the families of Kampong Chhang and the KDC International Company, but still, the KDC International Company sent in its machinery to undertake land levelling. Mr. Sam Chankea considered the activity of land levelling by the KDC Company as an unlawful act. He stated that “what the company has done is an act of violation since the court has yet to rule on the merits of the case. Therefore the company should suspend the activity and await the ruling on the merits of the case”.

Four Men Held for Violence in Land Dispute

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
20 May 2009

Preah Sihanouk provincial court ordered the detention of four men on Tuesday for allegedly inciting violence in a land dispute with a wealthy businessman.

Yos Saran, 53, Kok Bunchhoeun, 53, Soy Sokha, 39, and “Mr. Ko,” around 30, were summoned by investigating judge Svay Tonh, who decided to put them in provisional detention for committing and inciting violence.

The charges stem from a land dispute that has been running since 2007, when businessman Chhun Hour requested to the government’s National Authority for Resolution of Land Disputes that 250 of 353 families be removed from 60 hectares of his land.

Residents say they have lived on the land for years and have nowhere else to go.

“Why are we living there for six or ten years and we cannot get the land-sharing”, asked Hok Bunna, one of a hundred protesters outside the provincial court Tuesday. “Investigating judge Svay Tonh summoned them for interrogation, and by the end of interrogation, the military police came and brought them to prison.”

Pok Sabon, an investigator for the rights group Licadho, said the protesters were beaten by military police as they tried to stop the truck carrying accused, though no one was wounded.

Chhun Hour could not be reached for comment, but court prosecutor Bou Bun Heang said the villagers were living on the businessman’s property.