Posts Tagged ‘Ny Chakrya’

Cambodian ‘ADHOC 5’ Human Rights Defenders surprisingly freed…for the time being

June 30, 2017
 Lim Mony (first from left), Nay Vanda (third from left), Ny Sokha (fourth from right), and Yi Sokan (first from right) speak to the media in Phnom Penh after their release from pre-trial detention, June 29, 2017.
Lim Mony (first from left), Nay Vanda (third from left), Ny Sokha (fourth from right), and Yi Sokan (first from right) speak to the media in Phnom Penh after their release from pre-trial detention, June 29, 2017.  RFA
Many media outlets [here Radio Free Asia] and social media reported on the conditional release of the ‘ADHOC5′ (https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/04/29/the-adhoc-five-in-cambodia-continue-to-linger-in-shameful-pre-trial-detention-for-more-than-a-year). On 29 June 2017, Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Theam Chan Piseth concluded his investigation and issued a court order to send their case to trial, conditionally freeing the five from detention and placing them under court supervision. According to the ruling, the five cannot change their residence or leave the country without court permission and must answer to any court summons. Following their release, the former detainees traveled to a nearby temple, where a Buddhist monk performed a cleansing ceremony to “wash away all evil.” The four active ADHOC officials then gathered at their organization’s office for an hour before returning to their homes.

[ADHOC officials Lim Mony, Ny Sokha, Yi Soksan, and Nay Vanda, and National Election Committee (NEC) deputy secretary-general Ny Chakrya, had been held for 427 days amid a wide-ranging probe into a purported affair by opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Kem Sokha. Authorities have charged the ADHOC officials with bribery and the NEC official—who is also a former ADHOC official—with accessory to bribery for attempting to keep Kem Sokha’s alleged mistress quiet. The five are collectively known as the “ADHOC 5.”]

Ny Chakra’s lawyer Som Sokong told RFA’s Khmer Service that he welcomed the provisional release of the ADHOC 5, but said the court should have thrown out their cases. “We are not satisfied with the court for not dropping all charges against them,” he said. “This release was done through a closing order by the investigating judge, who has forwarded the case to trial while releasing the charged persons provisionally. Their provisional detention has never been justified, which means it was a violation of their rights.”

Speaking to RFA after his release, Ny Sokha said that despite the hardships of his time in prison, he was encouraged by the support he and the other four detainees received from the local and international community, adding that he is committed to continue campaigning for human rights. “Even as a human rights defender, I was still badly mistreated, so I cannot imagine how ordinary people would have been treated,” he said.

Nay Vanda thanked the media for its coverage of his case, as well as NGOs and local supporters for pushing for the release of the ADHOC 5, while Ny Chakra pledged to return to his work at the NEC as soon as possible.

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Yi Sokan embraces his daughter in Phnom Penh after his release from prison, June 29, 2017. Credit: RFA

ADHOC director Thun Saray, who fled to Canada last fall amid the charges against his four colleagues, told RFA he was pleased to learn that they had been released, but added that a provisional release was not enough to bring them and Ny Chakra justice. “I’m afraid they will be imprisoned again if their activities upset their arrestors.”

In response to an April court ruling to extend the pre-trial detention of the ADHOC 5, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) called for Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to “release without delay” the five rights defenders, while the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recommended last November that they be freed. On April 26, the detainees were collectively named as a finalist for the 2017 Martin Ennals Award https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/04/26/breaking-news-three-human-rights-defenders-selected-as-finalists-for-the-2017-martin-ennals-award/.

Source: Cambodia Court Conditionally Frees ADHOC 5 Rights Activists

Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
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The ADHOC FIVE in Cambodia continue to linger in shameful pre-trial detention for more than a year!

April 29, 2017

From left to right: Ny Chakrya, Yi Soksan, Ny Sokha, Lim Mony and Nay Vanda.

From left to right: Ny Chakrya, Yi Soksan, Ny Sokha, Lim Mony and Nay Vanda. RFA

On 27 April 2017, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court extended the pre-trial detention of senior ADHOC staff and human rights defenders, Lim Mony, Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, Yi Soksan and Ny Chakrya by an additional six months, purportedly to further investigate their case. The five human rights defenders have already spent a year in pre-trial detention!  The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) [https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/adhoc]  is a human rights organisation founded in December 1991 by a group of former political prisoners aiming to address the absence of basic rights and freedoms in Cambodia. The organisation assists human rights victims and disseminates information on human rights, law and democracy to the Cambodian public.

On April 26, 2017, the detainees, listed as “FreeThe5KH” (Free the Khmer Five), were named as a finalist for the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/04/26/breaking-news-three-human-rights-defenders-selected-as-finalists-for-the-2017-martin-ennals-award/].

Many NGOs and the UN (including an opinion by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention last November) have called on he Cambodian government to immediately release five the human rights defenders and urge all to participate in the #FreeThe5KH campaign at https://freethe5kh.net/. “Cambodia’s donors should publicly call for the release and dropping of bogus charges against the ‘ADHOC Five,’ which were instigated by Prime Minister Hun Sen to intimidate and suppress human rights work,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW. “These human rights defenders are in jail as part of a campaign to destroy the opposition and scare Cambodian human rights workers into silence.”

Radio Free Asia reported on 28 April that the children of two of the human rights defenders said that their families faced serious hardship during the year their parents have spent in prison and expressed hope they might be freed.

Sources:

OHCHR BRIEFING NOTES – Arkansas executions, Cambodia | Scoop News

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/children-04282017171322.html

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/26/cambodia-use-anniversary-freethe5kh

https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/04/26/breaking-news-three-human-rights-defenders-selected-as-finalists-for-the-2017-martin-ennals-award/

https://www.ifex.org/cambodia/2017/04/28/free-khmer-five/

Posted in awards, Front Line, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 1 Comment »
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Even landmark UN decision does not change Cambodia’s treatment of human rights defenders

March 11, 2017

I was reading (belatedly) about the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, who in January 2017 intervened strongly in the case of the 5 Cambodian human rights defenders of ADHOC (#FreeThe5KH) who have been in detention since April last year. [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/05/04/civil-society-condemns-charges-human-rights-defenders-cambodia/] Only then did I realize that the case had led a few months earlier to a landmark decision by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD): the first time that any UN body has referred to HRDs as a protected group.

 

 

On 21 November 21, 2016, the WGAD ruled that the ongoing detention of Mr. Ny Chakrya, Deputy Secretary-General of the National Election Committee (NEC), and four staff members of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), Messrs. Ny Sokha, Yi Soksan, Nay Vanda, and Ms. Lim Mony, was “arbitrary.” Following a submission made by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OMCT-FIDH partnership), the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) in June 2016, the WGAD’s Opinion No. 45/2016 ruled that the five human rights defenders (HRDs) “have been discriminated against based on their status as human rights defenders, and in violation of their right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law under article 26 of the ICCPR.” This is the first time ever that the WGAD – or any other UN mechanism receiving individual complaints – has referred to HRDs as a protected group that is entitled to equal legal protection under Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ruling also recognised the violation of the five HRDs’ “rights to offer and provide professionally qualified legal assistance and other relevant advice and assistance in defending human rights.”

 In addition, the WGAD found that the targeting of ADHOC staff members for having provided “legitimate legal advice and other assistance” violated the five HRDs’ right to freedom of association. It ruled that violations of fair trial rights (including the fact that the five were denied legal counsel from the beginning of their questioning), unjustified pre-trial detention, and statements made by the Cambodian authorities which denied the five the presumption of innocence – all of which contravene Cambodia’s international human rights obligations in respect to the right to a fair trial – are also serious enough to consider their ongoing detention as arbitrary. The WGAD concluded that “the deprivation of liberty of Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, Yi Soksan, Lim Monyand Ny Chakrya, being in contravention of articles 7, 9, 10, 11 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of articles 9, 10, 14, 22 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is arbitrary.”

That Cambodian authorities are not impressed is shown by the continued detention of the 5 ADHOC HRDs and by the press release of 7 February 2017 calling for the cessation of the politically motivated criminal investigation of human rights defenders Am Sam-at and Chan Puthisak. Amnesty International, Civil Rights Defenders, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists signed the statement.

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Cambodian police detain protesters during a protest to free jailed activists in Phnom Penh, Cambodia May 9, 2016.© Reuters/Samrang Pring

Cambodian officials have accused Sam-at, a respected human rights monitor at the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) for nearly 20 years, and Puthisak, a land rights activist from Boeung Kak Lake and former prisoner of conscience, of instigating violence at an October 10, 2016 demonstration. Para-police forces, who are regularly used to suppress demonstrations, violently dispersed what had been a peaceful protest in Phnom Penh. When Puthisak attempted to prevent para-police from confiscating a drum that was being used by a demonstrator, four or five para-police attacked him, repeatedly beating him on the head with their fists, according to a video of the incident. When Sam-at tried to stop the assault, the para-police attacked him, also beating him on the head. Both men sustained injuries that needed medical attention.

“The investigation of Sam-at and Puthisak by the Cambodian authorities is a typically absurd and undisguised case of judicial harassment,” said Champa Patel, Southeast Asia and Pacific director at Amnesty International. “As usual, unnecessary and excessive use of force by the para-police goes unpunished, and those who work to promote and protect human rights find themselves subject to criminal proceedings.”

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Sources:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56036#.WMP0Dhhh2V4

Cambodia: In landmark decision, UN body declares the detention of five human rights defenders arbitrary #FreeThe5KH / December 18, 2016 / Urgent Interventions / Human rights defenders / OMCT

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/07/cambodia-drop-farcical-investigation-human-rights-defenders

Posted in AI, Civil Rights Defenders (NGO), FIDH, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ICJ, Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, OHCHR, OMCT, UN | 2 Comments »
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