Cambodia's Prats-in-Power Quotes (3)

Photo: www.guardian.com

Phnom Penh's City Hall have told Unionists that they cannot rally in support of 23 people bundled into police vans and taken to prison during a recent protest.

 It looks as if the Cambodian government agrees with City Hall that the right to protest be denied.

“If people demonstrate, it means they are trying to overthrow the government,” Interior Minister spokesman, Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak said.

Overthrowing the government, as the Lieutenant General dramatically claims, is of course far from what the unionists want; the release of the wrongly detained and free and fair elections is what they are after. 

And to add farce to his drama Sopheak continued,

“I think they should look for a lawyer to protect [the 23 prisoners],” Lt. Gen Sopheak added. “If they did nothing wrong, they would be released.”

Anti-government protesters treated fairly within the current Cambodian judicial system?

Not going to happen. 

Cambodia Cuts Scumbag Loose (10)

It looks like scumbag and serial pedophile, Alexander Trofimov (also known as Stanislav Molodyakov) is finally going to suffer; the Russian monster will stand trial in Moscow for multiple counts of rape and the sexual assault of 20 young girls.

'“According to investigators, the 46-year-old man in the period from July 2003 to April 2004 re­peatedly committed rape and sexual assault against girls in the Mytishchi district of greater Moscow. At the time of the crimes, the victims were between 8 and 13 years old,” the court document states.'

It's to be hoped that the Russian legal system is far less forgiving of pedophiles than was the morally corrupt and wholly incompetent Cambodian justice department.

For, let's not forget Trofimov, the child rapist:

~ Was convicted of sex crimes against 17 underage Cambodian girls.

~ The youngest of these girls was just six years old.

~The Cambodian Appeal Court handed down a consolidated sentence on 26/8/2010 and effectively reduced the serial pedophile's sentence from the original 24 years to just 8 years

~ He was given a Royal Pardon despite failing to meet the legal requirement that a prisoner must have served at least two-thirds of their sentence before being given such a pardon.

~ In total Trofimov served just four years in Cambodian detention.

~The Cambodian authorities refused to extradite Trofimov and he quickly found himself a house right next- door to a Sihanoukville primary school.

~ Despite claims by Cambodian police that they were keeping a watch on the creepy Russian he quickly and predictably disappeared from their sight.

~ Months later, and only under fierce pressure did the Cambodian authorities relent and agree to Trofimov being deported in June, 2012. 

~ The filthy pedophile was finally found staying at the family home of a 12-year girl who he claimed 'to love.'

Thankfully, Russia introduced tougher punishments for pedophiles last year.

Now those convicted must serve at least four-fifths of their sentence and suspended sentences are no longer possible.

Repeat offenders can now also be sentenced to a life term with chemical castration being compulsory in some cases.

So maybe now Trofimov will be left in a darkened cell to slowly rot...

http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2012/06/cambodia-cuts-scumbag-loose-6.html 
http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2012/04/cambodia-cuts-scumbag-loose-5.html 
http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2012/04/cambodia-cuts-scumbags-loose-4.html 
http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2012/01/cambodia-cuts-scumbags-loose-3.html 
http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2011/12/cambodia-cuts-scumbags-loose-2.html 
http://cambodianbeginnings.blogspot.com/2011/12/cambodia-cuts-loose-scumbags.html 

Cambodian Kids Behind Bars (Final) Lina's Story

Lina is a Cambodian woman doing a 16-year prison stretch for a crime she claims she did not commit. She has a young daughter, Maly, who spent time in jail with her.

She shares her small cell with as many as 25 prisoners and their children at a time.

Sometimes she never leaves her cell for days, even weeks, at a time.

Food and water supplies are scant and often make the prisoners sick.

Clothing and hygiene products are not supplied to any prisoners or their children by the state. 

There was never enough food  for Lina's daughter, Maly.

Prison guards would often hit Lina's young child and the youngster often witnessed jailer violence against other prisoners.

Sometimes other prisoners would get angry with Lina's daughter and the prison guards often stole food and gifts given to prisoners by their families.

Lina concludes:

"Sometimes, like in my case, it is necessary for mothers to bring their children to live with them in

prison. I think that the government and donors needs to give more money to prisoners for food,

clothing, medical care and education. 

However, I think that where children are concerned, the

government and donors need to build a safe place for children to live inside the prison, to build a school

so that children can learn, and to give our children more food, so that some one else’s child will not cry

with hunger every night."

~http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports/files/116LICADHOReportPrisonMotherChild07.pdf

Hun Sen Quotes (12): An Independent Judiciary?

She had acted “violently and unjustly in the eyes of the government”.

~Hun Sen, March, 2013

Prime Minister, Samdach Akaek Moha Sena Padei Decho, Hun Sen made this comment just over a week before jailed activist Yorm Bopha appeared before the supreme court to seek her release from jail, today.
This, in a country, where the courts are little more than a tool of the government, is simply a directive to the court to find against Bopha.

Which it did.

Bopha has now spent 204 days imprisoned despite not a single testimony or witness ever claiming she had acted violently.

Three Dead: Family Offered $500

Photo: Phnom Penh Post

A car careered into a boy aged eight and two girls- sisters- one also eight, the other twelve. They all die. Six others are seriously injured.

Cambodian Kids Behind Bars (5) Lina's Story- Food and Water

Lina is a Cambodian woman doing a 16-year prison stretch for a crime she claims she did not commit. She has a young daughter, Maly, who spent time in jail with her.

She shares her small cell with as many as 25 prisoners and their children at a time.

Sometimes she never leaves her cell for days, even weeks, at a time.

Lina continues:

"We get food, if you can even call it that, two times a day, lunch and dinner. Sometimes breakfast is served at 10am or even as late as 11 am and we get dinner at 4pm. We don’t get any food for lunch.

For these other two meals, we usually get dirty rice - rice that is black that sometimes has insects inside it. If we are lucky, sometimes there is also a small fish. I am always hungry.

We only have access to dirty drinking water that is always black and makes me sick. When my child Maly lived here, she used to get very sick from drinking this water. If you don’t have any money to buy coal to boil your water, or money to buy bottled water, then you have to drink this dirty water."

http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports/files/116LICADHOReportPrisonMotherChild07.pdf

Cambodian Kids Behind Bars (4): Lina's Story-Caged All Day

Lina is a Cambodian woman doing a 16-year prison stretch for a crime she claims she did not commit. She had a young daughter, Maly, who spent time in jail with her.

She shares her small cell with as many as 25 prisoners and their children at a time.

She continues:


The prison guards are supposed to open our cell doors at 8am and we are supposed to be allowed outside for 2 hours.

I know that we are supposed to be allowed outside the cell from 8-10am and again from 3-4pm.

 What really happens is that if you do not have enough money to pay the guard, you will not be allowed outside.

It costs 2000 riel (US 50 cents) a day to go outside the cell. I am very poor and I cannot afford to pay the guards, so I am locked up and denied my time outside the cell on a regular basis.

There are many days, even weeks when I have never even left my cell…



http://www.licadho-cambodia.org/reports/files/116LICADHOReportPrisonMotherChild07.pdf

Lights out on Justice

After not being paid for more than a year, and owed $25,000, electricity provider, Electricite du Camodgoge, cut the power to its customer, the Kandal Provincial court.

Despite the lack of electricity, Judge Sokuntha, insists the wheels of justice continue to turn  as usual because sessions are held during the day and documents can be printed elsewhere.

That's doubtful, and if a provincial court cannot honour a simple commercial contract, then what hope is there that they can dispense justice of any form?

Cambodian Vigilante Justice on the Rise?

Stealing a motorcycle could cost you your life

Two men fell to the ground after striking a pothole in Phnon Penh's Por Sen Chey district. Immediately upon hitting the turf one of the men was savagely kicked and beaten into unconsciousness by villagers. The other man fled.

Minutes earlier the two young, unemployed men, had stolen a motorcycle from one of the locals. The victims cries for help were answered by many and when the thieves were thrown to the road harsh vigilante justice was meted out.

The incident follows the recent mob beating and killing of a man who stole an old lady's gold necklace and the pack- killing of two gold robbers.

Such mob violence has declined in Cambodia over the last decade but these latest attacks raise the concern of whether these latest episodes of violence signal an upsurge again in vigilante justice.

It's not hard to see why Cambodians sometimes take the law into their own hands.

 It's not right, it's certainly not Buddhist behaviour, but if the police are largely useless or have their grubby paws out for a payment from the victim before they assist, how else is justice done and seen to be done?

Defamation Duplicity

On of the blunt weapons that the rich use on the poor in this country is suing for defamation; how after all, are the impoverished going to afford a lawyer. And so it is for provincial waitress Hi Theavy.

Theavy accused pals of the Prime Minister's brother- Han Sen- of sexual harassment whilst she was working in a restaurant. Han Sen promptly and improperly sought to have these charges dropped.

Surprisingly, this tactic doesn't appeared to have worked. So, instead one of the accused-Oum Socheath- has filed a defamation case against the waitress. And perhaps there would be nothing wrong with that, except the defamation case has been brought before Cambodia notoriously slow courts before the sexual assault charges have even been concluded.

Liquored-up Legal Man Staggers Free

A judge from a Cambodian province arrived in Phnom Penh and went for a night out recently. After more than a few drinks he drove through the capital's busy Daun Penh district on the wrong side of the road and smashed into at least 5 motorbikes and a car.

Stopped by police, he attempted to do a runner but was caught and taken to a police station. There, the juiced-up judge smashed a chair over the head of an officer who attempted to question him.

Not much later the blotto beak pays an unspecified amount in damages- money gets you out of almost any problem in Cambodia-and is quietly released after his family claims he suffers from health problems.

And what serious health problems allowed such gentle treatment of this legless, legal referee? High blood pressure.

Well,  excess drinking and rage can do that to you, Judge.  

Police Protection

Earlier this month 2 policemen, along with four friends, begin a mid-morning drinking session at a Phnom Penh Karaoke bar. Four hours later, it is alleged, one policeman held down a young hostess at the bar while the other raped her.

The 2 coppers were later arrested and detained. And one would expect and hope that, should they be found guilty, they would serve a very long time behind bars in one of Cambodia's less than delightful prisons.

Yet it seems that the victim is unlikely to see justice done- in fact these men probably won't even go to trial. They will face some sort of police disciplinary procedure, said Police Chief Men Heng Tith, but incredibly  he refused to confirm if the men would be formally charged and face a judge.

Never one's to get their priorities right the police did manage to ensure that the Karaoke bar closed it doors.