The Phnom Penh Municipal Court heard the case of government critic Ny Nak, charged for incitement to commit discrimination and public defamation, for posting on Facebook about a person named Heng Sour receiving 91 hectares of land in Kampot province from the government.
Lawyers representing Labor and Vocational Training Minister Heng Sour have asked for higher penalties including barring Nak from leaving the country and a $500,000 compensation.
Nak, who sold fertilizer and fruit trees, was charged and detained on January 5 this year after Heng Sour filed a complaint against him for the comment.
Dressed in an orange uniform in the courtroom, Nak confessed to posting a critical comment on his Facebook page “Iman-KH”, saying that the government decided to give away 91 hectares of land in Kampot province to a person named “Heng Sour”. However, he did not identify him as a minister.
“I recognized those posts because I had disseminated information to the public that the state had ceded land for private ownership. [I] had no intention to incite,” Nak told court.
“I ask the judge to drop the incitement and defamation charges. I was only showing a loss of natural resources,” he said.
He agreed that he did not verify whether the person he named was a minister or another individual, but he re-shared an article by media outlet The Cambodia Daily which attached a picture of minister Heng Sour.
Ministry spokesperson Katta Orn verified that the government granted land but it did not involve the minister.
In a separate case, Nak was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on charges of incitement to discrimination in August 2021, for “mocking a speech” by former Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Minister Heng Sour’s lawyer Ly Rathy has requested the judge to deliver a maximum sentence against Nak, particularly barring him from leaving Cambodia.
“I [request] the judge to consider barring him from leaving the country because a person who criticized wants to gain popularity in order to live abroad,” he said.
The lawyer also asked the court to consider blocking his Facebook page as it was “meant to commit offense”, and sought a two billion riel ($500,000) compensation.
Deputy prosecutor Seng Heang asked the judge to consider a penalty against the defendant who posted the “disinformation to slander” a member of the government, in this case the Labor Minister, which was beyond his right to exercise his freedom of expression.
“It is not exercising the right to freedom of expression but it was incitement and slandering information,” he said. “It has not just affected the honor of minister Heng Sour but it was an attack on a government member,” Heang said.
Meanwhile, defense lawyer Choung Choungy asked the judge to drop all charges against his client, noting that there was no element for punishing his client because Nak did not mention any name or defame the minister.
“It was not an incitement of violence against nationality or ethnicity because he was just showing his concern about the state ceding land for private ownership,” he said.
“I see that he did not mean to defame the individual Heng Sour,” Choungy said. When his client posted the information, numerous people commented and criticized, therefore the commenters should be held responsible instead, he added.
“There might be additional sentences but that is dependent on the judge,” Choungy said in response when asked about the travel ban proposal.
NGO rights group Adhoc president Ny Sokha said he was not optimistic that Nak will be freed from the charges as the situation of freedom of expression in Cambodia was still restricted, including the freedom of doing politics.
“Citizens desire to have fundamental rights and freedoms because our country is a democracy. The court should not consider punishing citizens which has impacted the citizens’ freedom of expression,” he said.
He noticed that the demand for compensation was “excessive”, which would deter people from exercising their right to freedom of expression.
The judge will deliver his verdict on August 22.
