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The Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to youth leader Thy Thorn, who was charged with “plotting” for organizing a protest against the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA) agreement, a decade-old development deal with the two neighboring countries.
Presiding judge Seng Neang announced the verdict, dismissing Thorn’s bail appeal, upholding the Court of Appeal’s decision not to release him from prison. The judge did not provide an explanation.
Thorn, vice president of Khmer Student Intelligent League Association (KSILA), was arrested in August 2024 with 100 other people for planning protests against the pact, which has since been scrapped by the government.
The demonstration, which did not take place as planned on August 18 that year, was sparked by several thousand Cambodians protesting in South Korea, Australia, the United States and Japan, to oppose the CLV-DTA due to concerns of Cambodia losing territory in northeast provinces to Vietnam.
Thorn, who was at the hearing, raised a question of why lower courts denied his bail, while other activists who made public apologies and defected, were granted bail.
“As a human rights defender, I am upset that I can’t be freed from prison,” Thorn said at Monday’s hearing.
Civic space in Cambodia is rated as “repressed”, according to Civicus. “Repressive laws are routinely misused to harass and criminalise human rights defenders, trade unionists, youth activists, journalists and the political opposition. Arrested individuals are frequently denied bail, while prolonged pretrial detention and secretive judicial proceedings are used to silence dissent.”
“We regret his continued imprisonment, which we see as having no benefit, as it draws more criticism,” said Am Sam Ath, operations director of rights group LICADHO.
Heng Kimsour, a policy and advocacy officer at Partnership for Environment and Development Organization, echoed Sam Ath, noting that the court should render justice to Thorn and other activists who have been imprisoned for their activism.
“I think the pending trial for activist Thy Thorn would keep him behind bars for a long time,” she said.
The CLV-DTA was established in 1999, with the participation of Laos and Vietnam. It initially covered 13 border provinces within the three countries. In Cambodia, border provinces Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Kratie were part of the deal. The government later scrapped the agreement.
