The Cambodian government has granted a 600-hectare concession to the family of notorious tycoon Ly Yong Phat, whose sugarcane concessions have been at the center of human rights violations.
A government sub-decree, accessed by VOA Khmer this week, reclassified 600 hectares of state land in Preah Sihanouk’s Prey Nub district, which is close to the Sihanoukville airport and a short drive to the city center. The land was granted to tycoon Seng Nhak and Ly Arporn, who is Seng Nhak’s wife and the daughter of Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat.
“Six hundred hectares of land in Ream and Bet Traing communes in Preah Sihanouk province’s Prey Nub district is carved out from the 2002 preservation area of flooded forests and is transferred from state public property to state private property,” reads June 9, 2020, sub-decree.
