Opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua said a group of 10 convicted anti-eviction activists on hunger strike at Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison were in a weak state during her visit to the facility Monday.
Seven of the 10 were convicted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on November 11 for protesting repeated flooding of their Boeng Kak neighborhood due to inadequate drainage.
The other three were convicted the next day for protesting against the convictions of the first seven.
All 10 have been on hunger strike since December 13. Ms. Sochua visited the women, plus eight other jailed activists, with fellow CNRP lawmaker Nhoy Chamroeun to check their condition.
“We are concerned about their health…. If they continue the hunger strike, they will get sick,” she said of the 10 women, who are subsisting on water and soy milk. “They are getting weaker and weaker.”
Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor for rights group Licadho, said one of the hunger strikers was sent to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital on Monday because of a slow heartbeat, but was returned to the prison a few hours later.
