“CPP Senator Denies Ties to Sugar Plantations”, 20 August 2014

…Senator Ly Yong Phat…denied long-running claims, reportedly repeated by a local NGO…that he has any interest in sugarcane plantations in Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey provinces, which are accused of stealing land from local farms and other rights abuses. Sen. Yong Phat is the owner of the equally controversial Phnom Penh Sugar plantation in Kompong Speu province…According to NGOs, farmers in Oddar Meanchey claim that local authorities have told them to take their complaints against a trio of plantations there, officially owned by Thai sugar firm Mitr Pohl, to Sen. Yong Phat. They say families there have also been forced off the plantations’ land both by company employees bearing Sen. Yong Phat’s name and by soldiers from a military unit that his company provides donations to…Phnom Penh Sugar…claims that Eang Vuthy of the NGO Equitable Cambodia again accused the senator of being the local partner of the Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey plantations at a press conference…It says the claims have caused “confusion” and “hurt the honor” of the senator. Mr. Vuthy, Equitable Cambodia’s executive director…denied referencing Sen. Yong Phat at…[the] press conference but nonetheless stood by the claim that he was tied to the plantations in Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey…