Two ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province have filed separate complaints with local rights group Adhoc, alleging they paid a total of $4,000 to a local journalist and a court clerk for their help in securing the release of their relatives from the provincial prison, family members and human rights workers said Tuesday.
Sal Theng and his cousin Romam Thom have been detained without trial since May 2007 for allegedly stealing a motorcycle, according to Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for Adhoc.
Relatives of Mr Theng now claim that they paid $1,000 to court clerk Prak Soeun through journalist Ting Yuth to secure the release of the pair, though Mr Theng died in prison on June 16, Mr Bonnar said.
Romam Pounh, an uncle of both men, said by telephone Tuesday that the journalist visited his sister’s house in Laminh commune, Bokeo district and asked for the money in order to negotiate the prisoners’ release.
“Both the journalist and the court clerk took our money and did not release my two nephews,” Romam Pounh alleged by telephone. “Now one of my nephews is dead. I need the money back because my sister is really poor, and she sold the farmland to earn enough money to pay the court clerk via this journalist.”
In a separate case, Romam Loch, along with his three children, Ting Pek, Ting Thoeurng and Ting Bit, were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for murder in 2007.
The imprisoned man’s wife, Ting Chhoeun, alleged Tuesday that she had paid a total of $3,000 to the journalist to secure the release of her husband and children.
The journalist, who has worked for Cheat Sachak newspaper for seven years, claimed on Monday that the families contacted him about publishing articles on their jailed relatives, and that is what the money paid for.
“I just told them that they needed to pay money, otherwise we could not write and print the articles in our paper,” Mr Yuth said, declining to specify how much they had paid.
But Mr Yuth also confirmed that he brought the families to meet provincial court clerk Prak Soeun last year.
“The two families directly paid the court clerk, but I don’t know how much they paid,” Mr Yuth alleged, stating that the clerk had demanded $1,500 per prisoner from a woman whose husband and three children were jailed for murder.
Reached by telephone Tuesday, Mr Soeun dismissed the allegations.
“I am not involved in extortion, because I’ve never accepted or demanded money from these people,” he said. “It is all Mr Yuth’s demands,” he added.
Last week, Adhoc also filed two separate complaints against senior Ratanakkiri court official Lou Sousambath and his clerk Yorn Than, claiming that they repeatedly demanded $500 from the mother of prisoner Keo Seila to secure his release. Mr Seila has been imprisoned without trial in Ratanakkiri for two years.
Lox Sokleang, an assistant in the Justice Ministry, said Tuesday that Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana had signed off on the complaint, and directed Sou Chanthy, director general for the Ministry, to investigate the matter.
Sou Chanthy could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
