A national union leader and his deputy were questioned by an investigating judge at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court on Monday over a violent clash that broke out in front of the Hong Kong-owned Agile Sweater garment factory in Chbar Mon City on January 12.
Investigating Judge Men Vannak said he was trying to determine whether to press official charges against the pair, who have been provisionally charged by a prosecutor with incitement, intentional property destruction, intentional violence and disrespecting a court order.
The union officials—Pav Sina, head of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), and the union’s deputy secretary-general, Suot Chet—were questioned for about an hour on Monday, Mr. Chet said.
Five lower-ranking union officials have already been charged over the clash, which the CUMW claims was instigated by a rival union affiliated with factory management.
Under questioning on Monday, Mr. Chet said, “The judge asked me what you were doing at the time. I said that I and about 10 other officials…arrived in front of the factory at around 6:30 a.m. We saw 20 to 30 young men wearing masks surround us and then they attacked us.”
