One of the country’s most prominent human rights activists, Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Kem Sokha, was detained and charged with defamation after police surrounded his Phnom Penh office for several hours Saturday.
Cambodian Legal Education Center director Yeng Virak was also detained and charged under the Untac law’s controversial Article 63, which sets defamation down as a criminal offense punishable by up to one year in prison.
Both men have been sent to pre-trial detention at Prey Sar prison over a banner that was displayed during celebrations for International Human Rights Day at Olympic Stadium on Dec 10.
The banner, which CCHR officials say dated back to the 2003 election and consisted of handwritten comments made by members of the public, was allegedly critical of the government and Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Kem Sokha’s lawyer, Som Chandina, said a government lawyer filed defamation lawsuits against his client and Yeng Virak on Dec 21. He said the lawsuits were filed on behalf of the government rather than Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Police arrived at the CCHR compound around 10:30 am, witnesses said. Ten uniformed and several plainclothes Daun Penh district and Interior Ministry penal police officers entered the compound but were not allowed in the building because, according to CCHR spokesman Ou Virak, they refused to show a search warrant. Over the next half-hour, other rights workers and a US diplomat arrived and met with Kem Sokha in his office as police waited.
Then, around 11 am, police sealed the compound and prevented anyone else from entering, including British Ambassador David Reader and US Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli. Dozens of supporters gathered outside, and police set up roadblocks along Street 242 to restrict public access.
Inside the center, Kem Sokha made a statement in the presence of Som Chandina, who represents opposition leader Sam Rainsy. Som Chandina negotiated with police for the activist to go to the municipal court for questioning.
Kem Sokha said that prior to the rights day celebration, NGO officials had shown the banners to government representatives and were not told any of them could not be shown. He added that the banner’s controversial messages were not written by him. “It’s not my opinion,” he said. “It’s the people who wrote it. If you want, I can ask for forgiveness for the people.”
The former Funcinpec senator said he had abided by the government’s wishes by taking the banner down when told to do so, and said he had followed the law. “I only do by the Constitution,” he said. “In any democratic country, there must be tolerance.”
About an hour later, Kem Sokha agreed to leave the building and go to the court. After hugging his wife, US Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Mark Storella and Licadho President Kek Galabru, Kem Sokha came outside. He remained in the CCHR compound, where the summons for questioning was read to him.
“I am not wrong at all,” he said, as his wife stood behind him and some of his supporters wept. “I am happy and have courage to answer to the court…. I am not shocked at all because I do everything for the nation, freedom.”
As he moved to enter a car, dozens of supporters inside the compound and others who had crowded Street 242 yelled in support. Kem Sokha raised his hands in the air, then got into the car, which made its way through the crowd as police tried to keep order.
At Phnom Penh Municipal court, Kem Sokha was led inside and questioned by Investigating Judge Sao Meach for several hours. Police prevented reporters from entering the grounds as more crowds gathered on Monireth Boulevard.
Intervention police armed with electric batons were deployed and dispersed the crowd, and police set up roadblocks several hundred meters from the court, moving dozens of angry motorbike taxi drivers out of the immediate area.
“We are so saddened by this,” said a 38-year-old moto-taxi driver who declined to be named. “He has helped us a lot. We want to show our support for him. We want him to be released.”
“[Kem Sokha] speaks the truth and we don’t believe he’s defamed the government,” said a 32-year-old driver who also declined to be named.
As moto-taxi drivers spoke with reporters, a large man in military fatigues used his mobile phone to record their words. Asked his identity, he produced a media pass that identified him as Ly Ranny, a reporter from a little-known newspaper called Kampuchea Khnom.
At the Cambodian Legal Education Center, police came and went three times, demanding entry and a meeting with Yeng Virak. CLEC staff denied the director was inside, and the two sides were at a standstill until a court clerk and deputy prosecutor arrived around 3:20 pm. Yeng Virak emerged and was taken to the court.
Phoum Bunphann, one of three CLEC lawyers representing Yeng Virak, said Sunday that the director was questioned for about an hour by Sao Meach before also being charged with defamation and taken directly to Prey Sar. “They say he is responsible for the whole ceremony,” Phoum Bunphann said. “But he’s not the one responsible. Every group had a booth and he was only one member of the organizing committee.”
Sources reported arrest warrants had been issued for two other members of the rights day ceremony’s organizing committee, but court officials denied this.
Municipal Court Director Chiv Keng defended the arrests and charges Sunday. “The defamation was very serious,” he said, adding that the banner allegedly accused the government of being a “treasonous regime” that sells land to the Vietnamese, and accused the government of being communist.
“The government permitted them to have the human rights day, but they wrote on the banners and badly cursed the government,” Chiv Keng said. “This curse is very serious. If the curse is allowed, it could become violent.”
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said he was too busy to comment, and Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak did not answer repeated phone calls. Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana said he was busy in meetings, and National Police Deputy Commissioner Sok Phal referred questions to the court.
Opposition lawmaker Ho Vann, who was at the CLEC office throughout the afternoon, said the arrests continue the government’s campaign of silencing critics.
Outside the CCHR compound, Mussomeli described the government as “thin-skinned” and said a continued crackdown on critical voices was threatening democracy. “We are concerned that this may be part of a broader plan to quash the opposition,” he said. “The prospects for a credible and free election in 2008 are being impaired…. They’ve scared the hell out of the opposition and it becomes more difficult to take these trappings of democracy as the real thing.”
Reader said the decision to charge Kem Sokha and Yeng Virak with criminal defamation was “inappropriate.”
“We simply believe that criminal defamation is not the way political dialogue should be conducted,” he said.
(Reporting by Lee Berthiaume, Samantha Melamed, Van Roeun, Yun Samean and William Shaw)
