As Supreme Council of Magistracy members approved judges and prosecutors for the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday, they also agreed to reinstate three suspended Phnom Penh court officials and the Battambang court’s suspended prosecutor, Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana said Tuesday.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court former Deputy Director Nop Sophon and judges Kim Sophorn and Tan Senarong—all of whom were suspended in October for unspecified wrongdoing—will be given new jobs in other locations, Ang Vong Vathana said.
Battambang Chief Prosecutor Yam Yet, who was suspended in August, also for unspecified wrongdoing, will be reinstated as chief prosecutor in Prey Veng Provincial Court.
“There were mistakes in checking the cases,” Ang Vong Vathana said of the original decision to suspend the officials, though he added that he was not entirely certain why the decision was made.
Municipal Court Judge Buninh Bunnary, suspended with the three others in October, has not been reinstated, Ang Vong Vathana said, though he did not specify why.
Tan Senarong said he has been appointed to work as a judge in Kandal’s Provincial Court, but declined further comment.
Nop Sophon said he had not heard about his reinstatement and did not know where he would be assigned to work.
“I would be able to work anywhere,” he added.
Kim Sophorn said he has been posted to Sihanoukville Municipal Court but declined to comment further.
Yam Yet said he did not know what prompted his suspension. But he thought it might be that he had dropped charges against a suspected robber who had been rearrested following Prime Minister Hun Sen’s so-called “iron fist” campaign against corruption in the judiciary.
“The superiors said I was wrong. The royal decree to suspend me said that I…applied the wrong charges to crimes,” Yam Yet said. “But I don’t know what case it referred to.”
The reinstatements come after seven other suspended or former municipal court officials convicted on corruption charges in December following the “iron fist” campaign were acquitted in a retrial at Battambang court last month.
