Cambodia jails activists for plotting against government

Bangkok Post Group

A Cambodian court handed jail terms of up to eight years to 10 activists of environmental group Mother Nature, on charges of plotting against the government and insulting the king, the group's founder and a lawyer said on Tuesday (July 2). - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00Cambodia has sentenced 10 environmental activists to jail for up to eight years for plotting

00:07against the government and insulting the king.

00:11That's according to the founder of the activist group, Mother Nature, and a lawyer on Tuesday.

00:16The verdict comes amid growing concerns about freedom of expression in the country under

00:20Prime Minister Hun Manate.

00:23Five of the defendants were arrested outside the court in capital city Phnom Penh immediately

00:27after the verdict.

00:29Activist supporters dressed in white held placards reading, justice is dead.

00:34Activist Ton Rotter.

00:40The court charged us with plotting to overthrow the government, or insulting the king, etc.,

00:46trying to do whatever to jail us.

00:48That is a big mistake, and not only affects the court system, but it affects the new government

00:54that has young blood, which we hoped would have democracy, respect human rights, freedom.

01:00But on the contrary, it showed us their fierce activity.

01:04Mother Nature has long campaigned against environmental destruction in Cambodia.

01:09The group highlights deforestation, illegal sand mining and corruption in development

01:14projects.

01:15The group's founder, Spanish national Alejandro Gonzalez Davidson, who was sentenced in absentia,

01:22said he was one of three charged with infringing Cambodia's Les Majesties law.

01:26He told Reuters that while the accusations of plotting against the state had not been

01:30clarified in court, three members were arrested after documenting suspected pollution runoff

01:36into a river in the capital in 2021.

01:40The Les Majesties charges relate to an internal Zoom meeting about political cartooning that

01:44was leaked.

01:46New York-based group Human Rights Watch branded the verdict devastating.

01:52The Cambodian government has previously denied that the trial was politically motivated,

01:57saying it did not prosecute critics, only those who commit crimes.

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