Cambodian courts on Tuesday sentenced ten environmental activists to prison terms ranging from six to eight years for conspiracy to commit crimes, in a new attempt to “muzzle” the opposition according to human rights groups.
The heaviest sentence concerns three of the defendants, also accused of lèse-majesté, Am Sam Ath, of the Cambodian League for the Defense of Human Rights (Licadho), told AFP. Among them is Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the Spanish co-founder of the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia from which the accused came, and who was deported in 2015.
“This is a very disappointing verdict. It is unbelievable that the Cambodian authorities would convict young activists who defend clean water in Phnom Penh, protect mangrove forests in Koh Kong and warn against the privatisation of land in protected areas, and present it as an attack on the state,” Am Sam Ath said.
All the defendants denied the charges, which they said were politically motivated.
Outside a court in the capital Phnom Penh where the verdict was delivered, four of the convicted activists were bundled into police cars, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The other defendants were not present.
The trial is an attempt to “muzzle criticism of government policies,” Human Rights Watch said in June.
For about ten years, Mother Nature Cambodia has “exposed corruption in the management of Cambodia’s natural resources,” their statement insisted, particularly in relation to the destruction of lakes in Phnom Penh in the name of urban expansion or illegal logging.
In recent years, environmental activists have faced repression from Cambodian authorities, their fight to protect the environment sometimes clashing with projects launched at will to develop one of Asia’s poorest countries.
published on July 2 at 07:29, AFP
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