Cambodia Jailed Ten Mother Nature Activists for “Plotting Against the State”
By Soben Ung
Originally published in July issue
July 2nd – Phnom Penh Court convicted ten environmental activists from an award-winning, youth led environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia for “plotting” and “insulting the King”. They were sentenced six to eight years in prison. Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research, Montse Ferrer said, “Today’s decision is another crushing blow to Cambodia’s civil society. Mother Nature Cambodia is a renowned activist group that has brought attention to environmental degradation fueled by long-standing corruption in the country. Instead of listening to young leaders at the forefront of the environmental movement, the Cambodian government has chosen to jail those that dare to speak out.”
Mother Nature Cambodia is a well-known youth-led group, found by Spanish national Alegandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who also was tried in absentia since he was banned from entering the country. Alegandro, Sun Rath, and Yim Leanghy were sentenced eight years in prison with 10,000,000 riels fine which equal to $2,500 for “plotting against the state” and “insulting the King”
Seven others convicted for “plotting against the state” were sentenced to six years in prison including Ly Chandaravuth, Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey, Binh Piseth, Rai Raksa and Pork Khoeuy. The charges were based on the group’s peaceful environmental activism from 2012 to 2021.
Four of those convicted: Chandaravuth, Ratha, Keoraksmey, and Kunthea attended the hearing and were violently arrested by the authorities dressed in both uniform and civil clothes immediately after the verdict. They were joined with supporters outside the courtroom and wearing white clothes and white headbands that said “Justice”. White clothes signify mourning for the death ‘of the justice system’. It was reported that a group of at least 50 police rapidly swarmed them, violently dragging and shoving them into waiting cars. At least two of them were dragged by their necks.
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (LICADO) released a statement condemning the conviction and the arrest on July 2nd stating it was “a shame for our nation. Silencing environmental defenders and characterizing their peaceful advocacy as a threat to the state is a mockery of justice.”
It is unclear how Leanghy was arrested. He did not attend the hearing that day. He also was transferred to prison.
All five activists are scattered to five different prisons across the country.
Leanghy, Kampong Speu; Thun Ratha, Correctional Center 3 in Tbong Khmum; Daravuth, Kandal; Keoraksmey, Pursat provincial prison and Kunthea, Preah Vihear.
“This unprecedented move, so transparently aimed at breaking the spirits of the activists, also places a heavy burden on their families who will have to travel hundreds of kilometers to visit their loved ones or provide essential materials in under-resourced prisons…the detention of all five activists across the country is a violation of international standards on the humane treatment of prisoners,” wrote LICADO.
The trial of the ten Mother Nature activists began from May 29 to June 2024. On June 5, five Mother Nature activists staged protest outside of the courthouse, dressed in white and some held flowers. They refused to enter the courtroom because the authorities did not allow some media and supporters to attend the public hearing. The hearing proceeded anyway without any of the charged activists present.
Several members of the Mother Nature group were charged in 2021 after they documented a waste discharged into the Tonle Sap River, near the Royal Palace. Sun Ratha, Leanghy and Chandaravuth were arbitrary detained for five months under the same charges, according to an Amnesty report. Thun Ratha, Kunthea and Keoraksmey also were arrested in September 2020 on separate incitement charges for peacefully demonstrating against the in-filling of an urban lake. They were jailed for more than 14 months.
Cambodian law against “insulting the King” was introduced in 2018 and it is unclear how the activists can be insulting the King. Critics have warned that the law is being used as a weapon to silence dissent.
“The government has shown time and time again that it will not tolerate any dissent. This verdict is yet another sign that Cambodia’s government has no intention of protecting the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Cambodian authorities must release all these environmental defenders immediately and unconditionally,” said, Montse Ferrer of Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research.
Mother Nature Cambodia activism has successfully brought attention to sand dredging, lake-infilling and pollution. The group’s creativity has drawn people’s attention to the environmental impacts in Cambodia. In 2023, the group was awarded Right Livelihood in Sweden.
According the group’s Facebook account, it has amassed nearly half a million followers. Its recent video dated May 21 highlighted a Chinese owned company dumping waste into a river in the Sihanouk Province causing high level of arsenic poison killing fishes, farm animals, and causing cancers. Villagers reported that they got sick from drinking the water.
A joint petition by Rainforest Rescue, Stiftung Asienhaus and FIAN calling on Prime Minister Hun Manet to Release the six Mother Nature Cambodia environmental activists immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges and fines. The petition has collected 101,734 signatures at the time of this report.
