(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 11 January 2006, Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) Director Yeng Virak, who was arrested and jailed on 31 December 2005 for displaying an anti-government banner, was released on bail but is still facing a criminal defamation charge in court, the CLEC reports. According to a CLEC statement released on 12 January, the […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – On 11 January 2006, Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) Director Yeng Virak, who was arrested and jailed on 31 December 2005 for displaying an anti-government banner, was released on bail but is still facing a criminal defamation charge in court, the CLEC reports.
According to a CLEC statement released on 12 January, the center’s lawyers secured Yeng Virak’s temporary release. Yeng Virak is the director of CLEC, not the coordinator of the Cambodia Center Education of Law (CCEL), as it was initially reported.
Although CLEC was relieved with Yeng Virak’s temporary release, anxiety still remains concerning the continued detention of critics of the government, including three human rights defenders and one journalist. “While I am thankful for my release, my first thoughts go to those who still remain in jail or are in hiding on defamation charges,” Yeng Virak told the CLEC.
Four individuals remain in jail on charges of defamation over border issues, including Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) president Kem Sokha, who was arrested along with Yeng Virak on 31 December 2005 as well as CCHR Deputy Director Pa Nguon Teang, President of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association Rong Chhun and Director of Beehive Radio Mam Sonando.
CLEC also urged the government and its members to withdraw all charges of criminal defamation made against these civil society leaders in 2005 and to recognize the protections provided by its Constitution.
According to CLEC, Cambodia’s Constitution guarantees freedom of expression explicitly in Article 41, and through its incorporation of international human rights agreements in Article 31. CLEC also noted that international law recognizes criminal defamation laws to be inconsistent with freedom of expression and contrary to a functioning democratic society.
Meanwhile, CCHR spokesman Ou Virak said on 11 January that their signature and thumbprint drive, to demonstrate those who want the human rights activists freed, which started on 5 January, was able to collect more than 60, 000 thumbprints from the people in the provinces of Takeo, Kampong Speu, Kampong Cham, Kampong Chnang, Kandal, and Battambang. Ou Virak added that he will give those thumbprints to the King this month. On 7 January, two human rights activists conducting the campaign were arrested and briefly detained by the Takeo provincial police. The international community has been mounting pressure on the Cambodian government to stop using legal means to silence its critics and to release all those jailed for criticizing the government, out of concern that this systematic crackdown on detractors and human rights defenders, which began in October, would undermine the country’s young democracy and still fragile civil society.
