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An Australian court has overturned an earlier ruling in a defamation case involving news outlet Al Jazeera and Hun To, the nephew of longtime Cambodian leader Hun Sen, according to a judgement published on Wednesday.
The earlier decision had dismissed part of Al Jazeera’s defense to subpoena documents from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that allegedly link Hun To to drug trafficking, an accusation aired in a 2022 documentary by the broadcaster on forced labor in scam compounds in Cambodia. The appeals judge has now dismissed those rulings.
“The primary judge relied on what he viewed to be a general rule that a publisher in a defamation proceeding can only argue a justification defence on the basis of information that the publisher has in their possession at the time the defence is raised,” said an Australian lawyer familiar with the case who asked to remain anonymous due to security concerns.
“The appeal judges found that that was too rigid an approach, and that Al Jazeera’s case wasn’t one where they put up nothing,” he added.
The Qatari state-funded broadcaster featured people in the documentary who said they were forced to carry out online scams at different locations in Cambodia, including at a special economic zone in Cambodia’s Pursat province. The report linked the site to MDS Heng He Investment, a company now under U.S. sanctions. The documentary also identified Hun To as a director of several related Heng He firms, including a bank and a real estate company.
At the center of the lawsuit is a line in the documentary stating that Hun To was “reportedly suspected by Australian police of drug trafficking.” His lawyers argued the claim was defamatory.
Hun To also sued The Australian newspaper for repeating the allegation. The case was settled out of court last July and the article was taken down.
Hun To has denied any involvement in scam networks or drug trafficking.
In its appeal, Al Jazeera said Australian police had a file on Hun To containing 17 documents tied to an investigation into an international drug trafficking case between 2002 and 2004. According to the broadcaster, one document described him as an “emerging drug suspect.”
The cousin to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet first faced the allegations in 2012, when Australian journalist Nick McKenzie reported he had been a subject of the organized crime probe known as “Operation Illipango,” including an alleged heroin shipment. McKenzie later claimed that a senior Australian official in Cambodia intervened to deny his visa during the investigation.
Hun To denied the allegations in 2012, telling Radio Free Asia at the time that if his visa had been denied, he would not have been able to travel between Australia and Cambodia.
Al Jazeera counsel Matt Collins told the Federal Court last August that an arrest warrant had been issued for Hun To. The Cambodian businessman’s counsel, Simon Wilson, later cited an email from an Australian Federal Police officer stating the agency held “very few” documents naming him and that it was “likely” no material responsive to the subpoena existed.
Collins and Wilson said by email they were not permitted to comment publicly on the case, citing ethical rules for barristers in Australia. Calls and messages to phone numbers listed for Hun To in Cambodia’s Commerce Ministry database did not go through.
“As for what happens next, Al Jazeera will likely seek to obtain those additional documents from the AFP,” said the Australian lawyer, adding the broadcaster may challenge the AFP’s public interest immunity claim.
He said the ruling was an important win for press freedom in Australia. Had the earlier decision stood, it would have posed a major impediment to media outlets reporting on people suspected by police of criminal offences and made the discovery process in defamation cases of this kind more uncertain.
Amid the legal battle, other firms linked to Hun To have meanwhile faced scrutiny, including Huione Pay under the Huione Group, which has since been reportedly dissolved.
After multiple reports alleging the group’s involvement in laundering funds from online scams and North Korean hackers, it was blacklisted by the United States late last year. The National Bank of Cambodia said it had revoked Huione Pay’s license more than a year earlier and ordered its liquidation. The firm, which denied the allegations, has since rebranded as H-Pay.
