Award-winning Cambodian journalist Mech Dara has ‘confessed’ to charges of “incitement to provoke serious social unrest,” the Phnom Penh Municipal Court said late on Oct. 1 following a series of social media posts he made last month.
RELATED
- Rights Orgs, Press Freedom Groups Call for Release of Cambodian Journalist
- Outrage as Cambodian Journalist Charged For Social Media Posts
Mech Dara has been placed in pre-trial detention — provoking another international backlash — and faces up to two years behind bars after being charged under Articles 494 and 495 of Cambodia’s criminal code, as the information ministry noted his press credentials expired in 2022.
The arrest follows a long-running crackdown on dissent which the government has justified as a means of countering a plot to oust former leader Hun Sen and more recently his son, current Prime Minister Hun Manet, who assumed power in August last year.
In full: https://www.ucanews.com/news/cambodia-condemned-for-journalists-arrest/106581
