(July 22, 1999, New York) -- Human Rights Watch today welcomed the dismissal of charges against ten people, including two workers from the Cambodian human rights organization Licadho, who were arrested after demonstrations broke out in Sihanoukville, Cambodia in December 1998.
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"We welcome this verdict, and hope this means that Cambodian nongovernmental organizations will no longer be subject to official harassment. This case should never have gone to trial in the first place. And despite the positive outcome, the Cambodian court system still needs a lot of improvement."
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Mike Jendrzejczyk
Washington Director, Asia Division
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"We welcome this verdict, and hope this means that Cambodian nongovernmental organizations will no longer be subject to official harassment," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch." This case should never have gone to trial in the first place. And despite the positive outcome, the Cambodian court system still needs a lot of improvement."
Jendrzejczyk noted that serious procedural errors and lack of evidence marked the trial from the outset, and that several of the defendants were tortured in police custody.
Licadho employees Kim Sen and Meas Minear and market vender Khieu Piseth were charged with inciting illegal demonstrations and violence when riots broke out after residents learned that 3,000 tons of toxic waste had been dumped near the port city of Sihanoukville. Seven other defendants were charged with robbery. After three days in court (July 8-9 and July 21), Judge Tak Kimsea decided to drop the charges against the ten people.
According to a Human Rights Watch observer present at the three-day trial, the prosecution was not able to introduce a single piece of evidence or a single witness to support the charges against Kim Sen and Meas Minear. In addition, a six-week investigation by Human Rights Watch in March and April 1999 showed that the case was marred by procedural flaws from the beginning, when the two rights workers were arrested without warrants, charged without sufficient evidence, and then imprisoned for a month.
Human Rights Watch also noted that evidence was presented during the trial that three of the defendants had been tortured while in police custody. A fourth man, arrested but not charged, also testified that he was beaten in custody. Further evidence was given that at least two people arrested during the demonstrations were forced to sign statements in police custody. At no stage during the hearing did either the judge or prosecutor comment on, or seek any further details of, these alleged improprieties committed by the police.
Jendrzejczyk noted that torture is prohibited by Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, andArticle 12 of the Cambodian Criminal Code.
On the positive side, Human Rights Watch said it was generally satisfied that the judge permitted both the defendants and defense witnesses to have their say, and the defense lawyers were able to make a strong case.
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