Moek Dara, Chea Leng corruption case hits Court of Appeal

Tuesday, 04 September 2012
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
The Phnom Penh Post

The Naga casino boat drug bust at the centre of the corruption convictions of disgraced anti-drugs czar Moek Dara and his one-time deputy Chea Leng hit the Court of Appeal yesterday, with the busted convicts in the Naga boat case blaming each other and accomplices for the crimes.

In 2008, Leng led a team of undercover cops to crack down on the Naga casino ship in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmorn district.

Lim Hay, 36, and Suth Romanea, 33, who were in court yesterday, were busted for trafficking heroin that Leng is now convicted of siphoning off and selling in a separate case.

Hay and Romanea were sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 25 million riel [about US$6250] for intent to traffic two kilograms of heroin.

Cops ejected from Boeung Kak press event

Wednesday, 04 April 2012
Khouth Sophakchakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

Boeung Kak lake residents yesterday accused commune police of not fulfilling their duty of keeping them safe, forcibly expelling a number of officers from a press conference called to highlight the problem.

At the conference held by 20 residents of Phnom Penh’s Village 22 in Daun Penh district, resident Heng Mom said her house had been broken into on Monday night and that US$200, a passport and an identification card had been stolen.

She claimed that police did not pursue the case after she filed a complaint.

“It is extremely unacceptable, because travelling from one place to another, we are trailed by the police. We seem to be criminals as well; but when the robbery occurred in my family, we could not find the police,” she said.

Nget Khoun said an unknown assailant had tried to strangle her daughter on March 27 as she was falling asleep but escaped when she woke up.

The police had demanded 20,000 riel (US$5) when a complaint was filed, she said.

Ex-Footscray cop hunts Cambodian human traffickers

New beat: Steve Morrish swapped Footscray's streets for those in Cambodia in his role of combating crime. (Picture: Michael Copp)

28 Mar, 2012
BY CLAIRE KNOX
Maribyrnong Weekly (Australia)

BEADS of salty sweat filter down Steve Morrish's creased brow. It's the dry season in Cambodia in 2008, and the ex-detective from Footscray is waiting uneasily in an old crimson Camry in Battambang, the country's second-largest city.

He and a local police team are about to pounce on a brothel they suspect is using underage girls as sex slaves.

It transpires one owner of the brothel is a military police officer, the other a policeman working in the anti-human trafficking unit created to combat this type of crime.

Once freed, the 16 victims, most under 14, tell of a friend missing with her baby, fearing they may be dead.

After scouring the site, Morrish and local police find a tiny, shallow grave but suspect the mother is buried in dense jungle littered with landmines.

They never did find her body.

Jarai ethnic community take the law into their hands while the incompetent cops are too busy taking bribes

Jarai community vigilantes with the Viet truck transporting illegal logs they have arrested

Cops from unit 623 and O’Yadaw district cops allow illegal logging in Ratanakiri province by Viet merchants

Monday, May 11, 2009
Rasmei Kampuchea
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The Jarai ethnic minority group from Lom village, Pok Nhai commune, has accused border cops from unit 623, as well as O’Yadaw district cops of collusion to allow illegal logging in Ratanakiri province by Viet merchants.

Poy Phnom, Lom village chief, said that since 2007, Viet merchants had come to log precious wood in the O’Yadaw area and they took them back to Vietnam in large trucks.

Poy Phnom claimed also that the reason these Viet merchants brought in large trucks and cut down precious wood because they are in collusion with the Cambodian border cops and O’Yadaw district cops.

He said that the Viet merchants who conducted illegal logging only aim at No. 1 precious wood. After they are done logging, they cut the woods into pieces and carted them off to Vietnam in large trucks.

He said also that members of his community reported the case to Pok Nhai commune cops, as well as border cops, indicating that Viet merchants trespassed into Cambodian territories to conduct illegal logging, but the cops never arrested them. Quite to the contrary, the cops turned around and accused the villagers of not telling the truth.

Poy Phnom said that, in the past, community vigilantes stopped the trucks transporting illegal logs belonging to Viet merchants, and they brought them to the cops, but the cops made arrangements with the Viet merchants, took their bribes and released the trucks back.

The Lom village chief said that in the evening of 07 May, vigilantes from his community arrested one the trucks belonging to the Viet merchants, but another one fled near O’Cheang area, Lom village, Pok Nhai commune, about 6 kilometers from the “white zone” [No man’s land: disputed border zone].

He added that when the illegal truck was stopped, there were 4 Vietnamese citizens inside the trucks and they have confiscated 10 pieces of logs, each measuring 3-meter long with 40 to 80-centimeter wide.

The truck was brought to Lom village by the vigilantes, but the 4 Viets were handed to the Pok Nhai commune police. However, the next morning, the cops released all the Viets back.

The community indicated also that cops of the Pok Nhai commune are threatening the community and forcing them to return the truck back to the Viet merchant in exchange for 10 million dongs (~$550). But, the community refused to return the trucks back to the Viets.

Nguon Sovann, chief of the border police unit 623, indicated that in the case of the community confiscating the Viet truck, he is not involved with it because he is currently sick. However, he said that police officers working under him are following up on this case. When we asked the cops who are under the order of chief Nguon Sovann, they said that this issue involved that O’Yadaw district police instead.

Ma Vichit, O’Yadaw district police commissioner, indicated that, on the day the illegal logs were confiscated, he was busy: he went to a meeting at the Ratanakiri province. However, he said that his officers are already involved in this case.

Sao Vanny, director of the Keo Andong Meas forestry department, said that he did not learn yet about the community confiscating a Viet truck transporting illegal logs, but that he is sending officials to follow up on this case, however, he does not know the outcome yet.

Representatives of the Jarai community asked the government to take measures to prevent unauthorized Viet merchants to bring in large trucks to conduct illegal logging in O’Yadaw district. They said that the illegal logging started since 2007, and when they reported the cases to the border cops, no measure was ever taken, to the contrary, these cops only take bribes from the Viet merchants only.

Cops, politicians most corrupt

Left: Cambodia top politician, Hun Sen - Rigth: Cambodia top cop, Hok Lundy

7 Dec 2007
AFP

BERLIN: One in every four people has been asked to pay a bribe to the police, and political parties and parliaments are the most tainted by corruption, a Transparency International study released on Thursday shows.

The poor are targeted for bribes in both developed and developing countries, according to the watchdog's Global Corruption Barometer 2007.

The study "has made it clear that too often, people must part with their hard-earned money to pay for services that should be free," said Transparency International Chair Huguette Labelle. "And they do not see enough commitment when they look to their governments and leaders."

The study found that the countries with the highest level of petty bribery, with 30% of respondents reporting paying bribes, were Albania, Cambodia, Cameroon, Macedonia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania and Senegal.

By region, Africa experiences the most demands for bribes, the study found. The poor are hit hardest by petty bribery as they are more likely than those from a high-income bracket to pay bribes when seeking services.

And, Transparency said, that rule held true regardless of whether respondents were from richer or poorer countries. Telephone and gas providers were the least likely to demand bribes, while the police were the worst offenders. Twenty-five percent of respondents who came into contact with the police were asked to pay a bribe and one in every six reported that they ended up paying a bribe.