Cambodia: PM’s Brother Wants Sex Case Dropped [-Hun Xan is as corrupt as Hun Xen]

February 25, 2012
Radio Free Asia

The brother of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has requested a court official to drop a sexual harassment suit against two of his friends, drawing condemnation from rights groups.

Hun Sen’s older brother Hun San made the request in a letter to Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court Chief Prosecutor Phann Vanrath, a copy of which was seen by RFA. The prosecutor’s office confirmed with RFA that it had received the letter on Friday.

In the letter dated Dec. 3, 2011, Hun San, who is the director of an agency under the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, calls the harassment claim against Cambodian Mine Action Center official Oum Socheat and businessman Thang Pisith “groundless.”

“Please forgive me that I can’t meet you in person,” reads the letter by Hun San, who is the director of the Kampuchea Shipping Agency & Brokers Department.

“I would like to request that you, brother prosecutor, please help intervene and aid Oum Socheat and Thong Pisith to put an end to the Nov. 13, 2011 accusation made by a waitress in a Stung Treng restaurant.”

Hun San questioned the accusation against the two middle-aged men, who allegedly verbally harassed and groped 25-year-old Hy Theavy while she served them, saying they would not have done so with others present at the table.

“As mentioned above, I ask that the prosecutor please intervene and drop the case. I hope that the prosecutor will help in ending the suit.”

All that Cheam Yeap could offer to respond to US Congress Res. 820 is: Excuses, excuses and more poor excuses!

Cambodian Lawmaker Addresses US Censure

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
15 October 2009

A senior Cambodian official called a US congressional resolution condemning corruption in Cambodia “unacceptable” and counter to a system of checks and balances.

Responding to House Resolution 820, Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yiep said the four congressmen who drafted the resolution had taken only one side in their evaluation, the opposition.

The resolution—introduced Oct. 8 by representatives Ed Royce, a Republican from California; Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia; Jim Moran, a Democrat from Virginia; and Anh Josept Cao, a Republican from Louisiana—calls on the House of Representatives to condemn the repression of opposition candidates by the ruling party and calls on the Cambodian government to better combat the “worsening problem” of human trafficking.

“Please, evaluating congressmen, don’t listen to only one side and evaluate,” CPP National Assembly member Cheam Yiep told VOA Khmer. “It’s not right, and you can understand, in your language, ‘checks and balances,’ means that both [sides] are put out on the tray.”

“The condemnation that’s been raised is unacceptable,” he said, adding that opposition lawmakers had sought to cloud information about the situation in Cambodia.

(The resolution also cites reports from a UN rights envoy, the environmental watchdog Global Witness and the US State Department as cause for its censure.)

Cheam Yiep said the full House of Representatives was unlikely to follow the resolution.

“We are a developing country and cannot do like the US, a country that has developed for hundreds of years,” he said. “We’ve learned from experience and everything to develop the country.”

The government has not ignored human trafficking, he said, but “is trying to implement the law to crack down on human trafficking and sex trafficking.”

He also cited this week’s passage in the National Assembly of a national penal code as a gradual step to reduce corruption. Officials say the penal code was necessary before anti-corruption legislation can be passed.

He also defended the courts. “The system does not have the principle to allow corruption or commit injustices,” he said. Court corruption was undertaken by “a few individuals,” not the entire system, he said.

The Supreme Council of Magistracy has investigated and punished wrongdoing in the courts, he said.

“Raising the court system as corrupt and unjust, I can’t accept that,” he said. “If one says only some individuals in the system, I can accept that.”

The corrupt court is protecting one of its own: Light sentence for a woman-beater and high-ranking officer

Group Blasts Judge for Light Sentence in Battery Case

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
10 October 2007

A rights group Wednesday lambasted a Phnom Penh municipal judge for handing a light sentence to a high-ranking military official in a battery case.

Col. Chhor Dara was found guilty of beating a woman, but the judgment of a suspended sentence with time served was too light, said Kek Galabru, founder of the rights group Licadho.

"We appeal to the prosecutor…to file a protest so the Appeals Court can prosecute fairly and properly," she said. "This is all I ask. I don't want to have bad karma [by demanding a heavier sentence]. This is not a personal grudge, but it is about justice in society. We want the people in Cambodia to have due process under the law. For those who have high-ranking positions and those who have top officials backing them, they should receive due process under the law. Poor people and wealthy people should be equal [before the law]."

Cambodia's courts are notoriously corrupt and widely believed under the control of the ruling Cambodian People's Party, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The judiciary's poor reputation has not improved, despite the establishment of a $56 million genocide tribunal last year.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Chief Judge Uk Savuth declined comment.