Trial Wraps Up for Bomb Plot Suspects

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

Five men accused of planting bombs outside key government buildings earlier this year were back in court Tuesday, with defense arguing all charges should be dropped against them.

A defense lawyer told the court the men belong to a political movement called the Cambodian United Front, but there is no evidence linking them to a militant organization, called the Tiger Head.

Prosecutors say the Tiger Head was the military component of a movement assembled to commit acts of terror.

The five suspects are Som Ek, 49; Loek Bun Nhien, 48; Hy Savoeung, 49; Poa Vannara, 59; and Chea Kimyan, 45.

“All five were involved with the [Tiger Head] movement to establish armed forces and to plant bombs to make unrest and to oppose the government,” Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Hoeung Bunchea told the court Tuesday.

The men are also accused of detonating a small bomb near the Vietnamese Friendship Monument in 2007, near what was then the National Assembly building.

They were arrested shortly after officials found explosive devices outside the Ministry of Defense and the government-run TV3 station on Jan. 2 this year.

Som Ek, the accused ringleader of the group, told the court Tuesday he was “completely responsible” for establishing the Cambodian United Front, but he said it was meant as a “political party” aimed at defeating the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in the 2012 national election.

He conceded that the United Front included a plan for a military wing, called the Tiger Head, but he denied the militant wing existed now or was involved in terrorist plots.

Tuesday’s hearing concluded three days of trial spread over several weeks. A decision is expected Dec. 30. If found guilty, the men face jail sentences from 20 years to life.

Trial Opens for Suspects in Bomb Plot

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
25 November 2009

Phnom Penh Municipal Court opened a trial of a group of men arrested in January and accused of bombing a Phnom Penh monument, plotting to overthrow the government and placing explosives near government buildings.

The group is accused of exploding a bomb at the Vietnamese Friendship Monument in July 2007, as well as planting explosives outside two government buildings in January this year.

Three of the five arrested had opening statements Wednesday, with two more expected to see court Dec. 3, when the trial will resume.

The five suspects are Som Ek, who is 45, and Loek Bun Nhien, Hy Savoeung, Poa Vannara and Chea Kimyan, who are of similar age. They were arrested early last year after authorities found small explosive devices in front of the Ministry of Defense and the station for TV3.

They have officially been charged with planting bombs, mobilizing an illegal force and training of terrorists.

Som Ek addressed the court Wednesday, saying he led a “political organization” called the National Khmer Liberation Front, which has funding from overseas Cambodians but “is not a terrorist organization.”

“The purpose of the National Khmer Liberation Front is to attract support from the general public through education on land ownership rights, dignity, leadership, political ideology and opposition to land encroachment,” Som Ek said.

The group planned to form a political party and contest the next general election, he said.

“I had no principle to set up a terrorist organization, nor to plant a bomb in the city as charged,” he said.

Police say they found evidence of 30 explosives in Som Ek’s house at the time of his arrest.

Bangkok exiles fear renewed hunt

Police hold up a photograph of a suspected Tiger Head movement member at a press conference in Phnom Penh last month. (Photo by: KHEM SOVANNARA)

Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Written by Sam Rith and Brendan Brady
The Phnom Penh Post

"We survive by eating food that remains at the pagoda. I used to struggle for the nation, but I've become nothing" - Khut Kong Kea, self-exiled Cambodian and former SRP activist

Terrorism suspects denied Counsel
Rights groups have called for the release of more details surrounding the arrest, interrogation and trial of the five terrorism suspects, saying they have not been allowed access to legal council. Monitors from the UN as well as Cambodian rights groups Licadho and Adhoc have been prevented from speaking with the suspects. Chan Saveth, a legal counselor with Adhoc, said he was told by authorities he would not be allowed to even contact any of the suspects, who are being held in Phnom Penh's PJ Prison, until the investigation was over - a condition he described as "definitely not normal".

In hiding since being charged in 2005 with participating in an illegal paramilitary wing of the opposition party, former SRP activists fear further implication in ‘Tiger Head' group.

PASSING in and out of pagodas on the outskirts of Bangkok, Khut Kong Kea, a self-exiled Cambodian, thought he had faded from the spotlight, even if not seamlessly. But he fears the recent foiled bomb plot in Phnom Penh could return attention to him from authorities in his homeland, which he fled in 2005 for fear of being arrested as a dissident.

In an interview by phone with the Post, the 53-year-old said he fled to Bangkok after he discovered his name was on a "blacklist" of people authorities intended to round up after their arrest of Cheam Channy.

Sam Rainsy parliamentarian Cheam Channy was arrested in 2005 and detained in a military prison in Phnom Penh on charges of organised crime, fraud and raising a rebel army for the opposition party.

He served one year before pressure from civil society groups and, eventually, a pardon from the King, secured an early end to his seven-year sentence.

But whether or not the government's hunt for the alleged "shadow army" foot soldiers is over, the men it implicated who took flight to the backstreets of Bangkok fear authorities will connect them to the most recent incident of suspected terrorist activity to challenge their rule.

Of those who have sought refuge in Bangkok since 2005, Khut Kong Kea said six other men and their families remain, living and receiving food as alms in pagodas in the metropolis's outer environs - and none have received asylum.

"Some others were arrested by Thai police and sent back with other illegal immigrants," he said.
"And now, since we heard the news that the government has arrested Som Ek, we constantly change where we stay since we heard he admitted some other people outside the country were involved in his group."

'Tiger Head'

Four people, including a former provincial deputy police chief and a suspected opposition party defector, were charged January 12 under Cambodia's antiterrorism law over an alleged bomb plot on state facilities. The charges stem from three small bombs discovered January 2 outside the Defence Ministry and the state-run television station, TV3.

On January 31, authorities said they arrested a fifth man, whom they would not identify, on the same charges in connection with the bombs and on suspicion of recruiting and training terrorists.

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, according to multiple sources, defected to the ruling Cambodian People's Party and last year publicly accused the opposition leader 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.

Police say Som Ek has confessed to organising both the most recent bombing attempt and an earlier bomb plot to blow up the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument in July 2007.

The government has alleged an anti-government organisation called the Tiger Head Movement masterminded the failed bomb plot with the support of international backers.

Thai reunions

Like his fellow accused former Sam Rainsy Party activist, 41-year-old Kong Samnang fled Cambodia in 2005 along with his wife and children.

"I escaped after being sentenced to 10 years when the court and government conspired to punish me, and I escaped from being killed by Hun Sen's bodyguards," he told the Post by telephone.

"I've been very concerned since I heard Som Ek and Lek Bunnhean were arrested. They are saying people outside the country are involved in their group. We will not escape from being accused because either one might have our names on a list of people they spoke with in Thailand."

That government officials have been tight-lipped about their investigations has not helped Kong Samnang's anxiety. National police spokesman Kieth Chantarith would only say police were still investigating the case and more arrests were expected, without elaborating due to the sensitivity of the case.

Meanwhile, the former wanted activists in Bangkok are laying as low as they can.

Chea Socheab had been incarcerated in Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison in 2003 for several months for joining in an anti-government song at a public rally. The 35-year-old said he was not prepared to go behind bars again and saw refuge across the border as his only option in 2005.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok has twice dropped his application for political asylum, he said.

"I'm stuck here and can't do anything. It's like being stuck out at sea," he lamented.

The UNHCR said it was not familiar with the cases of the men interviewed by the Post.

Chea Socheab said that when he first arrived in Bangkok, he would regularly meet Lek Bunnhean and Som Ek. They were drawn to each other's company because of their shared background in the isolation of a foreign country, but never discussed dissident activities, he insisted.

"I did not know they had started this Tiger Head Movement," he said.

Khut Kong Kea said he met Som Ek in Thailand in 2006 and 2007. "Cambodian refugees outside the country, like those in Thailand, just became friends with Som Ek," he said.

Mobilising an armed resistance to the Cambodian government was far off the radar of the self-imposed exiles who have been bogged down trying to eke out a living and dodge local authorities, he said.

"There was no involvement between people outside the country and Som Ek and Lek Bunnhean. They did this for their ambition only," he said.

"But I am very concerned they will take our names to the government for us to be arrested."

He rejected the original charges against him and denied the opposition party had raised an army to advance its political agenda. "It was the structure each party needed for its safety," he said.

Khut Kong Kea entered politics in 1995, first as a member of the Khmer Nation Party and then, when it folded in 1998, he joined the Sam Rainsy Party.

He said he sought asylum through the UNHCR, but his case was dropped when, after Sam Rainsy returned to Cambodia, they saw the security threat against alleged opposition party dissidents as limited. Khut Kong Kea figured the same protection afforded the high-profile opposition party leader would not be extended to him and decided against a return.

Meanwhile, life for him and his wife and eight children has bottomed out. "We survive by eating food that remains at the pagoda. I used to struggle for the nation, but I've become nothing."

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.

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.

Four Cambodian men charged in failed bomb plots

Mon, 12 Jan 2009
DPA

Phnom Penh-Cambodian police charged four men with attempted murder and terrorism Monday in failed bomb plots against the Ministry of Defence and state-owned television in the capital early this month. The four men were arrested last week for allegedly planning the foiled January 2 attack, in which two small TNT bombs were laid outside the ministry and the TV3 headquarters in central Phnom Penh.

All four men appeared in court and were also charged with crimes relating to the illegal recruitment of armed people.

Prosecutors argued the men were members of small rebel group, which they said had links to other militant organizations and planned the attacks to destabilize the government and attract international attention.

Police said last week that the apparent leader of the group, Som Ek, had also confessed to ordering a thwarted bomb attempt at the Cambodian-Vietnamese friendship monument on one of Phnom Penh's main boulevards in July 2007.

Police also alleged Som Ek, also known as Ti To, had told them his group received funding from international supporters.

Som Ek is a dual Thai-Cambodian citizen and was a military policeman during the early 1990s, police said.

Bomb plot mastermind faces court today: police

Police display a photograph of the alleged mastermind of the bomb plot that targeted the Ministry of Defence. (Photo by: KEM SOVANNARA)

Monday, 12 January 2009
Written by Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

Authorities say the man who allegedly planned a bombing attempt this month was also behind a 2007 bomb attack on the Vietnamese Friendship Monument

FOUR suspects being held in connection with bombs discovered January 2 that appeared to target the Defence Ministry and state television station TV3 will appear before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today, two days after police announced that the alleged mastermind had confessed to his involvement in the foiled attack.

Speaking at a press conference Saturday, Sok Phal, deputy director general of the National Police, said suspect Som Ek had confessed to masterminding the January 2 plot as well as a foiled attempt to bomb the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument on July 29, 2007.

Som Ek, 44, who has dual Thai-Cambodian citizenship, was born in Kampong Cham's Koh Sotin district and was formerly involved in the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, Sok Phal said. He worked for the Defence Ministry in 1993 and later went to study in the United States for 18 months, where he learned to make explosives. He was jailed for three months in 2003 for forging Defence Ministry documents, he added.

Som Ek was arrested in connection with the January 2 plot on Wednesday in Banteay Meanchey's O'Chrov district.

Sok Phal said Som Ek ordered the bombings in an attempt to get foreign support and funding for the Khmer National Unity Front (KNUF), also known as the Tiger Liberation Movement, which uses the tiger head as its symbol. Som Ek allegedly took pictures of members of the group planning and carrying out the attacks to send to potential donors based outside the country.

Sok Phal compared the KNUF to the Cambodian Freedom Fighters organisation in that both groups receive support from outside donors, but he declined to elaborate on that comparison. He said police were looking to arrest people both inside and outside Cambodia who are allegedly involved with the KNUF.

Police arrested five people in 2007 in connection with the foiled attack on the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument, Sok Phal said, noting that those suspects have been detained in Prey Sar prison. He said police discovered bomb-making materials and a remote-controlled helicopter that could transport a bomb. He said Som Ek claimed in his confession to ordering five people to place bombs in front of the monument.

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.

4 arrested in bomb plot

Sat, Jan 10, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - CAMBODIAN authorities have arrested four men on suspicion of planting three bombs around the capital last week, a senior police officer said on Saturday.

Deputy national police commissioner Sok Phal told reporters that one of the four alleged plotters was 44-year-old Som Ek, a dual Cambodian-Thai national who had previously worked as a Cambodian military policeman.

'He (Som Ek) told the police that his bomb plot was to bring attention to the group inside and outside the country, so he could extort money,' Mr Sok Phal said.

'This is just some kind of business just to rob or extort money,' he added.

He said Som Ek had been arrested on Wednesday and told authorities that his group was backed by people outside Cambodia.

The deputy police commissioner gave no further details on the alleged group or other three suspects.

No one was harmed in the bomb plot in which police found three explosive devices on January 2 planted near the Ministry of National Defence and a television station.

Mine clearance personnel destroyed the bombs later that day.