Two men and a woman arrested Saturday by the Interior Ministry for allegedly disseminating anti-Hun Sen leaflets were sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court Tuesday and charged with spreading disinformation, court and police officials said.
Thach Samnang, 44, and female suspect Tri Non, 41, were arrested in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district, while Thach Ngoc Seoung, 46, was arrested in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, a police official said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
Municipal court Chief Prosecutor Ouk Savouth said the case against the three has been handed over to an investigating judge. He declined to comment further.
Chhay Sinarith, director of the Interior Ministry Information Department, who is investigating the leaflet drops, declined to comment.
Hundreds of leaflets containing anti-Hun Sen propaganda have been dropped in Phnom Penh, Takeo and Pursat province since earlier this year. The leaflets, attacking the prime minister’s policies and calling for his arrest and trial, have baffled police, who have refused to speculate on the identity of those behind the operation.
Tuesday’s court appearance of the three suspects followed the latest drop Aug 30, when more than 120 leaflets were dumped outside garment factories in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district, deputy district police chief Born Sam Ath said.
The leaflets, which accused Hun Sen of leading Cambodia into poverty and betraying the nation’s royalists, were distributed at 2 am and removed from the streets by authorities at 6:30 am, Born Sam Ath said.
