Matt Blomberg
Defense Minister to Head 2023 South East Asia Games
Longtime Defense Minister Tea Banh has been appointed president of the 2023 Southeast Asian Games, which will be hosted by Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced after a Council of Ministers meeting on Friday.
Wedlocked
In rural Cambodia, bride brokers have built an industry selling the Chinese dream to desperate families.
Prosecutor Seeks Lesser Charge for Ousted Judge
Ang Mealaktei, who was ousted as Phnom Penh Municipal Court director last year amid accusations of serious corruption, found an unlikely ally during his embezzlement trial here on Thursday morning: the man tasked with prosecuting him.
Drama as Trial of Accused Child Abuser Delayed
The trial of a German expatriate accused of sexually abusing five Cambodian boys was delayed at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday, with the judge briefly taking the bench before stating that he did not have time to preside over the scheduled hearing.
Biofuel Case Delayed Over Toothache, Headache
The drawn-out trial of five men connected to a failed biofuel venture in Banteay Meanchey province was delayed at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yet again Wednesday—with the chief defendant, British entrepreneur Gregg Fryett, apparently too ill to face the court.
TV Personality Withdraws Complaint Against Tycoon
Ek Socheata—the television personality who became the subject of debates about gender and class in Cambodia after a video clip of her being beaten by real estate mogul Sok Bun went viral in July—withdrew her attempted murder complaint on Tuesday.
Huts Razed for Chroy Changva Road Project
Bulldozers on Monday demolished about a dozen thatch and brick huts on a parcel of disputed land to make way for a new road in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district, as a family claiming to own the land burned tires in protest and stood by with documents they said would prove their tenure.
IGE Employee Implicates General in Fraud Case
The long-running trial of a British entrepreneur, two of his employees, a lawyer and a provincial official facing a slew of charges related to a failed biofuel venture in Banteay Meanchey province continued at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday, with one of the employees implicating a military general in the use of fraudulent land-transfer documents.
Former Gov’t Official Implicated in Fraud Case
Former Banteay Meanchey provincial governor Oung Oeun has gone on the record to say that Mr. Thean Teu, a deputy provincial governor until 2007, continued to abuse his accumulated power, criminally, for years after leaving the post, and stated as much in a 2012 letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Migrant Fishermen to Be Cremated In Thailand
A group of Cambodian migrant fishermen is preparing to cremate five colleagues in Thailand’s southern Ranong province after they were struck by a mystery illness while working on a commercial fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean, an official said on Monday.
Rules for Street Weddings Do Exist—For Some
Contrary to popular belief, there are regulations for erecting wedding tents on the streets of Phnom Penh. But not all authorities know the rules, and they don’t apply to everyone.
Turkish Man in Knife Fight Has Criminal History
One of two Turkish men arrested over a knife fight in Sihanoukville on Monday has a criminal history in the seaside city, according to military police. However, the Turk claimed on Wednesday that he had been wrongly identified, and that police and reporters were colluding with a rival Turkish faction to sully his name.
Hun Sen, Rainsy Jostle for Social Media Fame
The sight of opposition leader Sam Rainsy in a bathing suit is nothing strange for users of Facebook, where he has been regaling his followers for years with photographs of himself at leisure.
But Prime Minister Hun Sen in board shorts and a singlet is something new entirely.
Disgraced Ex-Court Director Transferred From Prison to Clinic
The chief of Kandal Provincial Prison said on Thursday that Ang Mealaktei, the disgraced former Phnom Penh court director, had been transferred to an upmarket Phnom Penh clinic for medical treatment, but an administrator there said his name had not appeared on her register.
Police Quash Veng Sreng Memorial Ceremony
Riot police and municipal security guards shunted a group of would-be mourners around Phnom Penh’s southern industrial precinct on Sunday morning as they attempted to mark the second anniversary of the day military police marched along Veng Sreng Boulevard firing assault rifles into crowds of rioting garment workers.
At Congress, Monks Target Outspoken Politician
Rape, murder, drug use and child abuse dragged Cambodia’s Buddhist order through the mud in 2015. But rather than address the crimes plaguing the country’s pagodas, the annual monk congress in Phnom Penh this week focused instead on the rhetoric of Khem Veasna, head of the minor League for Democracy Party
Drivers Jailed, Work Resumes in Bavet City
Six truck drivers who work transporting garment workers to and from factories in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City were jailed on Friday on a trio of charges over their alleged roles in protests and riots that have rocked the industrial hub for the past week and a half, officials said.
German Accused of Child Abuse Claims Cleaner Set Him Up
A German expatriate accused of sexually abusing five young boys told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday that the mothers of two of his alleged victims had framed him after he threatened to report one of them for stealing his iPad.
Special Report: Grand Concessions
The Vietnamese People’s Army has quietly assumed control of nearly 40,000 hectares of land in Ratanakkiri.
Industrial Shutdown in Bavet Threatens Orders
Two special economic zones in Bavet City remained shuttered on Wednesday on the orders of the Svay Rieng provincial government, according to an administrator at one of the SEZs, who said that financial losses would skyrocket if the workers did not return to their stations by Monday.