SRP MP Ho Vann arrives home

SRP MP Ho Vann (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)

31 October 2009
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

SRP MP Ho Vann returned back to Cambodia in the evening of 30 October, following the Phnom Penh municipal court decision to drop the defamation charge leveled against him. The charge stemmed from a lawsuit brought up by 22 high ranking RCAF officers against him.

Phnom Penh SRP MP Son Chhay told RFA on Friday 30 October that Ho Vann returned home to serve the Cambodian people following a few months of absence.

Son Chhay said: “I believe that it is a reasonable time for Mr. Ho Vann to return back to fulfill his role as Phnom Penh MP.”

Sok Serey: The representative of the 20 or so officers did not appeal?

Son Chhay: We don’t know if they will appeal or not.

General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the ministry of Interior, said that Mr. Ho Vann should not worry about his personal safety.

Khieu Sopheak said: “Come back, there is nothing! Unless the police receive a letter from the court, then we will do our work accordingly, but we have nothing at all.”

Sok Serey: So, he is a regular citizen, he has no charge against him, right?

Khieu Sopheak: First, he is a regular citizen, but it looks like he did not receive his immunity back from the National Assembly yet.

Chan Soveth, an official for the Adhoc human rights group, said that the National Assembly should return the immunity back to Mr. Ho Vann.

Chan Soveth indicated: “In particular, our National Assembly, the President of the NA should think and make the court [requests for the] return the immunity to Mr. Ho Vann, the SRP MP, so he can serve his constituents again.”

It is not yet known when the NA will return the immunity back to Mr. Ho Vann.

Ho Vann returned to Cambodia after the Phnom Penh municipal court decided to drop the defamation charge against him on 22 September because the court did not find that he did anything wrong as he was accused by the 22 RCAF officers.

SRP MP Ho Vann and Mu Sochua saw their parliamentary immunities lifted on 22 June so that they can face the court. Following that lifting, Mr. Ho Vann left for self-exile in June.

22 RCAF officers sued the 62-year-old Ho Vann, as well as reporters for The Cambodia Daily newspaper because Ho Vann gave his comments to the newspaper on 21 April in which he criticized the diplomas received by these 22 officers for their education in Vietnam as being valueless and lacking quality.

Two reporters for The Cambodia Daily, Nao Vannarin and Kevin Doyle, were ordered by the court to pay 4 million riels ($1,000) each for repeating defamation information.

Embattled Lawmaker Arrives in US

By Khemara Sok
Original report from Washington
30 June 2009

Ho Vann, a Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker who had his parliamentary immunity pulled earlier this month, is in the US to meet other opposition party officials.

Ho Vann arrived in Massachusetts last weekend, following a June 22 vote in the National Assembly to suspend his immunity for a pending case in Phnom Penh court.

He faces charges of defamation from a group of 22 military officials who were angered when he publicly questioned the quality of certificates they’d received from the Vietnamese government.

“I’ve come to the US at the invitation of our party branch and will meet our party activists, who need explanations from the party and from our country,” he told VOA Khmer by phone. “After that I will go to join a meeting, according to a previous plan, in Italy.”

Rights groups have questioned the immunity pull, claiming it threatens democracy and protections for lawmakers to speak freely.

A second SRP lawmaker, Mu Sochua, who is facing a defamation suit by Prime Minister Hun Sen, also had her immunity suspended in the National Assembly vote.

Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party controls a vast majority of National Assembly seats, and the vote raised questions about the separation of the legislative and executive branches of government.

SRP MP Ho Vann on the suspension of his parliamentary immunity

On June 22, 2009, SRP MP Ho Vann talked to reporters after the National Assembly lifted his parliamentary immunity.

Civil society groups slam Cambodian government's harsh suppression of freedom of expression

11 June 2009
Source: SEAPA

Several civil society groups in Cambodia expressed concern at what they claim as "the perilous state of freedom of expression" in the country.

In a joint statement signed by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association (IDEA), Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Association (KKKHRA), and Cambodian League for the Protection and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO), they have accused Phnom Penh authorities of taking "harsh actions to suppress freedom of expression" by residents of Boeung Kak Lake.

The groups also noted that since the end of April 2009, Cambodian government officials have filed complaints of defamation, disinformation or incidetement against several Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmakers as well as a lawyer, a journalist and an NGO president.

On 8 June 2009, the Phnom Penh Municipality reportedly sent armed forces to close the Lazy Fish guesthouse in the Boeung Kak area after its owner agreed to rent the premises to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) for a public forum on "Human Rights and Development" on 12 June 2009. The CCHR decided to suspend its forum after the guesthouse was forcibly closed.
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On Thursday 4 June 2009, Soung Sophorn, a law student, SRP activist and a resident of Boeung Kak, was arrested after he had painted "Absolutely fighting against communist policy," and "People Suffer due to Cheap Government and Company" on the walls of several houses. Detained in police custody for two days, he was then taken to Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday. Despite this being a non-working day for the court, he was hurriedly placed on trial, convicted of defamation and sentenced to pay 5 million riels compensation to the government.

The groups said these actions of the Phnom Penh Muncipality, police and court in the above two cases "were clearly unjustified and aimed at suppressing the freedom of Boeung Kak residents to discuss and express opinions about the pending loss of their homes due to the government giving a private company a 99-year lease to the lake area."

In addition, recent months have seen a total of four defamation, disinformation or incitement complaints filed against three SRP lawmakers, Mu Sochua, Ho Vann and Sam Rainsy, by the government or individual high-ranking officials. Similar complaints were also filed against Mu Sochua’s lawyer, Kong Sam Onn, and Khmer Machas Srok newspaper director Hang Chakra.

Several other lawsuits have also been filed. A disinformation suit was lodged by a government lawyer against Mr. Moeung Sonn, the president of Khmer Civilisation Foundation, for comments he made about lights being installed at Angkor Wat. Mr. Moeung Sonn subsequently fled to France; his departure is understandable in the context of past cases of disinformation in which a non-independent judiciary decided the fate of defendants. Moeung Sonn himself had sued Mr. Soy Sopheap, the commentator of Cambodian Television Network (CTN), for defamation and disinformation as well.

According to the groups, "The pattern of complaints of defamation, disinformation and incitement filed by high-ranking officials, and the intimidation of residents at Boeung Kak lake, poses a serious threat to the right to freedom of expression in Cambodia. In particular, Article 62 (Disinformation) and Article 63 (Defamation and Libel) of the UNTAC criminal code continue to be used to silence the voices of Cambodian people and to prevent public participation."

Given this concern and threat to human rights and freedom of expression in Cambodia, the groups urged the Cambodian government to:

• "Reconsider its lawsuits over defamation and disinformation, in the interests of ensuring that all Cambodian people have the opportunity to express their points of view and to freely participate in debate about government policies and practices,
• "Respect the principles of freedom of expression as stated in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and other international covenants, to which Cambodia is a party, and also in the Cambodian constitutional law,
• "Encourage high-ranking and elected officials to build stronger democratic institutions which guarantee a greater separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and
• "Protect the constitutional rights of the Cambodian people and ensure the independence of the judiciary so that it respects the rights of all parties involved in litigation cases."

Second Opposition Lawmaker Called to Court [-Hanoi Military PhDs without schooling are not worthless, they are absolute rubbish]

SRP MP Ho Vann (L) seen here with journalist Dam Sith following the latter's release from jail

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05 June 2009

An opposition parliamentarian has been summoned to Phnom Penh Municipal Court, following a suit filed by a group of senior military leaders.

Sam Rainsy Party member Ho Vann told local media in April that certificates awarded to 22 senior military officials by the Vietnamese Infantry Institute were “worthless.”

Ho Vann told reporters after his questioning he had not incited or defamed, and denied calling the certificates worthless. He said he had made numerous attempts to correct both the Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post for corrections.

Pol Saroeun and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Kun Kim, received doctorates in military science from the Vietnamese Infantry Institute in 2007, while 20 other senior military officials earned the master’s degrees.

Pol Saroeun declined to comment on the case. Tann Mengsroy, lawyer for the plaintiffs, also declined comment.

Hun Sen uses the biased court to silence critics, including the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper

(Photo: RFA)

01 June 2009

By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

The Cambodian government sued the “Khmer Machas Srok” newspaper with another complain: defamation. The newspaper was sued once already for publication of alleged false information accusing a number of high-ranking officials surrounding Sok An, Cambodia’s [very powerful] vice-PM and minister of the Council of ministers, of being involved in corruption.

Suong Chan Thorn, the government lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, told RFA that the additional complain was brought up when he went to clarify the court recently.

Suong Chan Thorn said: “We still preserve the stance of our lawsuit that we brought up, they are defamation and publication of false information, and we demand compensation according to the law.”

He indicated that publication of false information is a criminal lawsuit, whereas the defamation case is a civil lawsuit. He is asking for 10 million riels ($2,500) in compensation.

Regarding the additional complain, Hang Chakra, the editor of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, reacted by saying that these lawsuits were brought to discourage him and to silence critics and those who express their opinion.

Hang Chakra plans to go to the Phnom Penh municipal court to clarify this case on 03 June as summoned: “We saw that lawyer Suong Chan Thorn highlighted words [published] in my newspaper, and he used these to sue me. I consider this as an act of political intimidation, this is not a normal case.”

The lawsuits were brought up after Khmer Machas Srok published a number of articles in April and May under the title: “Hun Sen breaks up the nest of bad and corrupt government officials around Sok An”, and also under the title of: “Several Pro-Sok An government officials face removal from their position.”

Pen Samithik, president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, said: “This means that the [government] could sue or it could ask the news media to make a correction.”

Chan Sovet, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights group, commented: “I think that the additional lawsuit constitutes a threat on journalists.”

It is noted that the lawsuits against the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper are brought up at the same time that SRP MP Mu Sochua is subjected to another lawsuit from Hun Sen for defamation as well. Mrs. Mu Sochua will go to court on 03 June to provide clarifications in her case.

Furthermore, SRP MP Ho Vann is also sued for defamation by 22 high-ranking army officers in Hun Sen’s regime. He will go to court to clarify his case on 05 June.

Human rights activists and organization observe that these successive lawsuits against the opposition are a mechanism set up by Hun Sen’s regime to use the court to silence its critics.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Hanoi's Animal Farm

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