Rights groups condemn denial of bail in Cambodia

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH

Rights groups have criticized the denial of bail to four human rights workers and an election official by Cambodia’s Supreme Court, saying the decision was politically motivated.

The court heard the final appeals filed by four workers from local rights group Adhoc, as well as former Adhoc worker and the deputy secretary-general of the National Election Committee, after the Appeal Court upheld an earlier decision to imprison them ahead of trial for assisting the mistress of an opposition leader.

This week, the court denied the appeals. On its Twitter account, Adhoc said: “Where is the justice?” Another local rights group, Licadho, said the charges against five are “spurious.”

Forum-Asia director Betty Yolanda said the situation was a clear-cut case of “judicial harassment” after more than 200 days of “arbitrary detention”.

“Despite the lack of evidence and reasonable grounds for detention, the five human rights defenders continue to be deprived of their right to liberty and due process of law,” Yolanda said.

She added that the decision “is a grim reminder that civic space in Cambodia keeps shrinking and the judicial system continues to be used to intimidate and criminalize human rights defenders for doing their legitimate work”.

The case centers on recordings of telephone calls that were leaked early this year between Kem Sokha, the deputy leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, and a woman purported to be his mistress.

As an investigation was opened into comments about property made in the recordings, the mistress sought and received support and assistance from Adhoc.

However, in May, all five were charged with having bribed the woman, and were detained ahead of trial.

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said the continued imprisonment of the five amounts to persecution and that the decision violated basic due process rights.

Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director, urged donors to hold the Cambodian government accountable for this, and also for recent threats made against the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Phnom Penh.

“No one should mistake these prosecutions for anything other than Prime Minister Hun Sen’s effort to undo decades of work by Cambodian groups and the UN to promote the human rights of all Cambodians,” he said in the statement.