The first day of a rotating group trial began Wednesday for nearly 40 activists held in pre-trial detention for over a year on incitement charges linked to protests against a regional development pact.
Srun Srorn, the first defendant, was arrested in July last year after posting a video criticizing the Cambodia-Lao-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA), which the government has since withdrawn from. Denied bail for the second time, he argued his case for more than three hours in Phnom Penh’s municipal court.
Three other defendants facing related incitement charges, Pheung Sophea, San Sith and Chak Banmony, are in the first group to be tried alongside Srorn. They are among five rotational trial groups of the 37 activists jailed after protests were quelled by authorities last year.
Rights groups said the arrests – which initially swept up nearly 100 people, including children – were arbitrary and unlawful, and have urged authorities to drop the charges.
Most of the defendants face Cambodia’s widely criticized incitement charge, which rights groups say is often used to target critics, dissenters, journalists and activists.
The presiding judge also denied bail for 11 other defendants without explanation.
Defendant lawyer Son Chum Chuon, expressing disappointment, said many expect to file an appeal, a second one for most.
Cambodia Center for Human Rights (CCHR) executive director Seng Sovathana, expressed concern over trails’ rotation-like approach, in which five cases are being tried concurrently rather than individually.
He also criticized the repeated denial of bail, calling it particularly concerning given the trials are expected to be lengthy.
Sovathana reiterated that under national law, defendants facing misdemeanor charges cannot be held in pre-trial detention for more than six months. All 37 jailed activists spent at least half the maximum sentence for an incitement conviction behind bars.
