Ten Cambodian environmental activists sentenced to 6-8 years in prison each

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Ten members of a Cambodian environmental activist group who campaigned against destructive infrastructure projects and alleged corruption were each sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for conspiring against the state.

Three members of the Mother Nature Cambodia group were also found guilty of insulting Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, for which they were sentenced to an additional two years in prison, giving them a total of eight years behind bars.

Only five of the defendants attended the trial and the others were convicted in absentia. They included four Cambodians whose whereabouts are unknown and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a Spanish national and co-founder of the group, who was deported in 2015 and banned from returning to Cambodia.

The five people present at the trial were arrested outside the court after the verdict and sentences were handed down. They had gone to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court with their supporters, dressed in traditional white funeral attire, which they say represents the death of justice in Cambodia.

Phun Keoraksmey, a 22-year-old member of the group whose mother was by her side, said she was prepared to go to prison.

“But I never want to go back to prison because I did nothing wrong. But I will never run away from what I am responsible for. I chose this path, I chose this path,” she said.

Cambodian human rights group Licadho called the verdict “very disappointing.”

“Today, the court ruled that young activists fighting for environmental protection and democratic principles are actually acting against the state,” she said. “It is astonishing that Cambodian authorities are convicting young people who are campaigning for clean water in Phnom Penh, protecting mangrove forests in Koh Kong, and warning against the privatization of land in protected areas, as an attack on the state.”

Last year, the group was a co-winner of the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the “alternative Nobel,” given by a Stockholm-based foundation to organizations and individuals working to “preserve the dignity and livelihoods of communities around the world.”

Three members of the group, who were serving suspended prison sentences at the time, were refused permission by Cambodian judicial authorities to travel to Sweden to collect their reward.

Mother Nature, founded in 2012, was deregistered as a non-governmental organisation by the Cambodian government in 2017, but its members have vowed to continue their work, with some having served prison sentences in recent years.

Last month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Cambodian authorities of trying activists on politically motivated charges “to silence criticism of government policies.”

“For over a decade, Mother Nature has campaigned against environmentally destructive infrastructure projects, exposed corruption in Cambodia’s natural resource management, and mobilized young Cambodians to defend the country’s dwindling biodiversity,” she said in a statement. Cambodia has one of the highest rates of deforestation and wildlife trafficking in the world.

Gonzalez-Davidson and two other defendants were charged with defaming the king in statements made during an online meeting.

The Cambodian government has long been accused of using the judicial system to persecute its critics and political opponents. The government maintains that the country follows the rule of law under an electoral democracy, but parties seen as opponents of the ruling Cambodian People's Party have been dissolved by the courts or had their leaders harassed.

Under former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ruled for nearly four decades, the government was heavily criticized for human rights abuses, including crackdowns on freedom of expression and association. His son, Hun Manet, succeeded him last year, but there has been little sign of political liberalization.

“Instead of listening to the young leaders at the forefront of the environmental movement, the Cambodian government has chosen to imprison those who dare to speak out,” Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s deputy regional research director, said in a statement after the court ruling.

“The government has repeatedly shown that it will not tolerate any dissent. This verdict is another sign that the Cambodian government has no intention of protecting the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”

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The article states that the activists who were banned from travelling to Sweden were serving suspended prison sentences.