Calls for release of Cambodian human rights detainees

By Lauren Crothers

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

A fresh campaign was launched Monday to free four human rights workers and an election official from a Cambodian prison, where they are awaiting trial on charges that critics say are unwarranted.

A consortium of 52 NGOs and communities around Cambodia kicked off the campaign by accusing the courts of mounting a “politically motivated” case against the five and urging the public to draft notes of support that will be passed on to the detainees to lift their spirits.

Four senior members of local rights group Adhoc and a member of the National Election Committee -- who is also a former Adhoc staffer -- became the unlikely players in a sordid saga that began in February, with the leak of recordings of conversations between deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha and a mistress, Khom Chandaraty.

In the tapes, Sokha discussed buying property, and the government’s Anti-ption Unit began investigating the pair.

Chandaraty sought support and legal assistance from Adhoc. However, by April she had accused the staffers of trying to bribe her to deny the affair.

The five were charged with bribery by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in May and denied bail in June. Their bail requests are now before the Supreme Court.

“The five face charges in regard to providing advice and legitimate reimbursement of food and transport costs to the woman alleged to have had an extra-marital relationship with the deputy opposition leader, Kem Sokha,” the groups said in a statement released Monday.

“The charges have all the hallmarks of being politically motivated, amounting to legal harassment,’ they said, adding that Monday marked the 102nd day the five had spent behind bars awaiting trial.

The campaign includes a call to use a “FreeThe5KH” hashtag on social media and writing postcards to the five “to remind them that the public has not forgotten about their cause and to help keep their morale high while they remain in detention”.

This is not the first “free the” campaign that has been launched in Cambodia.

In 2012, civil society groups launched the “Free the 15” campaign to call for the release of a group of land activists arrested as they held a peaceful protest in their community.

In 2014, a “Free the 23” campaign urged the courts to release unionists and workers rounded up and arrested during strikes for higher wages in Phnom Penh.