"Cambodia: Land Rights Activists Face Baseless Charges", 24 May 2023

A Cambodian court brought politically motivated charges against three land rights activists ..., Human Rights Watch said ... The authorities should immediately and unconditionally release them.

The Ratanakiri Municipal Court brought charges against three staff members of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC), a community organization that defends land rights of farmers. The court charged them with plotting and incitement under articles 453 (plotting), 494, and 495 (incitement to commit a felony) of the Cambodian criminal code, and ordered them placed in pretrial detention...

“Fabricating these bogus charges against prominent civil society leaders shows how far the government is willing to go to silence critics in advance of the Cambodia elections in July,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “There needs to be a chorus of international condemnation targeting Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government to demand an end to these intimidating tactics.”

The authorities detained Theng Savoeun, president of the farmers’ group; Nhel Pheap, a senior officer; and Than Hach, a project officer on May 17 while they were traveling to Phnom Penh after holding an internal team building and training workshop in Ratanakiri province...

While other staff were released, the police continued to hold the three leaders. The three were briefly allowed access to a lawyer ..., but the police did not allow them to meet privately, a right guaranteed by international human rights law and article 98 of the Cambodian criminal procedure code. The lawyers were barred from meeting with the three as questioning continued through the weekend...