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.

U.S. helps Cambodia probe foiled bomb plots in Phnom Penh [-Is the FBI ready to reveal the truth, nothing but the truth?]

PHNOM PENH, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is working with Cambodia's national police to investigate the foiled bomb plots that occurred in Phnom Penh in January, said national media on Monday.

Police asked the FBI for assistance after it identified potential suspects overseas, English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily quoted national police spokesman Kieth Chantharith as saying.

"We have requested assistance from the FBI to do some investigation on suspects abroad," he said, while declining to say in which foreign country police believed the suspect reside.

Calling it a "terrorist case," the spokesman said that it is normal for Cambodia to contact foreign police forces when their home country becomes relevant to the investigation.

Three explosive devices of very limited killing power were found on Jan. 2 near the Ministry of National Defense and the state-run No. 3 Television Station, but detonated by experts later in the day, without causing any casualty and damage.

At least 6 people have been arrested so far in connection with the case. All the suspects belonged to an anti-government organization called the Tiger Head Movement.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Cat Head Movement

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

The FBI helps in so many investigations in Cambodia ... but no concrete results can be seen by the public, unless you're part of the corrupt regime

FBI Helping Investigate Bomb Plot

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
26 February 2009

The FBI has joined an investigation into a failed bomb plot on government buildings in January, US and Cambodian officials said Wednesday.

Six suspects in the plot, which was uncovered Jan. 2, when three explosive devices were found near two government buildings.

“The FBI have participated in the case because there are some dual citizens involved in the group, called the ‘Tiger Head Movement,’ who are responsible for planting the grenades,” a top police general told VOA Khmer. One of the group’s leaders, a suspect named Som Ek, confessed while in detention, the official said.

US Embassy spokesman John Johnson confirmed FBI cooperation in the case, saying they had joined at the request of the Cambodian government.

Neither side would give details of the investigation, but a Cambodian general said briefly the FBI had provided satisfactory results.

Cambodian officials say the Tiger Head Movement is a smaller group than the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, which are blamed for a night of gunfire in an alleged coup attempt in November 2000.

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."

Fifth suspect arrested in link with foiled bomb plot in Phnom Penh

February 02, 2009
Xinhua

A fifth suspect was arrested last week in Banteay Meanchey province and charged in connection with the foiled bomb plot on Jan. 2 in Phnom Penh, national media said on Monday.

Fifty-seven-year-old vendor Pov Sovannara "is the fifth person arrested in link with the Tiger Head Movement, which planted explosives in the city on Jan. 2," National Police spokesman Kieth Chanthearith was quoted by English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily as saying.

Pov Sovannara was charged on Sunday with "conscripting and training terrorist forces and planting explosives in public places" and more suspects will be named later, according to Kieth Chanthearith.

In January, four other Tiger Head Movement members were arrested for the same plot and also faced the same charges.

Three small explosive devices were found near the Defense Ministry and the state-run Television Station No. 3 and later safely detonated by de-mining experts on Jan. 2. The government claimed that the anti-government Tiger Head Movement was behind the foiled plot.

Wouldn't the Tiger Head live in the Tiger Den (Roung Khla) aka Tuol Krasaing?

The master of the Tiger Den (aka Roung Khla, aka Tuol Krasaing): Could he be the head of the tiger bandits? (No pun intended!)

Govt to investigate 'tiger head' group in relation to bomb plot

Friday, 09 January 2009
Written by Chrann Chamroeun and Thomas Gam Nielsen The Phnom Penh Post

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Lay Sokha, Mondulkiri provincial governor, is the only person to have used the name Tiger Head Movement to describe the bandits so far. When asked about the moniker, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith commented, "ask the involved themselves about their name".

A group of bandits thought to be called the ‘Tiger Head Movement’ are being investigated in relation to anti-government activities

BANDITS in Mondulkiri province have been accused by local authorities of having anti-government intentions, with Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith saying authorities now plan to investigate whether the group is connected to last week's foiled bomb plot in Phnom Penh.

"It is too soon to judge, [but] we plan to investigate whether the movement and the bombs are connected," he told the Post Thursday, adding that he could not reveal details of the scale of the alleged movement.

"We are monitoring them, but we do not know their goals and activities," he said.

On Tuesday, Mondulkiri provincial Governor Lay Sokha announced that around 300 RCAF soldiers were hunting for between six and nine armed bandits who he referred to as the Tiger Head Movement.

"We are working in close cooperation with the Kratie governor, and we have deployed some 300 RCAF troops to hunt the armed bandits who are operating in Kratie and Mondulkiri," he said, adding that he could not disclose further information about the movement's activities for fear of jeopardising the ongoing investigation.

Kham Phoeun, Kratie provincial governor, said Tuesday that he had heard about the case and that he also planned to investigate and was planning a no-holds-barred search for the bandits.

At the provincial office of local rights group Adhoc, coordinator Sam Sarin said that he knew of the armed bandits, but that he had not heard them referred to as the Tiger Head Movement. He said he did not have any information connecting them to anti-government activities.

"I have heard about five armed bandits wearing military uniforms who robbed 10 travellers in October 2008 in an isolated forest," he said, adding that the gang had allegedly carried AK-47 assault rifles. He said the incident occurred in the Sen Monorom district.

'Movement' a myth

Opposition lawmaker Yim Sovann said that he did not believe in the existence of an armed group named Tiger Head Movement, blaming "powerful people" for creating the term.

"[For the Tiger Head Movement to exist] is very ridiculous," said the Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker. "The CPP wants to create the story and later blame it on democrats who do not support the ruling party," he said, before urging the government to search for the real facts in the case.