{"id":19143,"date":"2021-06-22T01:57:11","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T05:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=19143"},"modified":"2021-06-22T01:57:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T05:57:11","slug":"cambodia-charges-environment-activists-with-insulting-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/06\/22\/cambodia-charges-environment-activists-with-insulting-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambodia charges environment activists with insulting the king"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A court in Cambodia has charged three environmental activists with plotting against the government and insulting the king.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The members of the group Mother Nature were arrested after they documented waste run-off into Phnom Penh’s Tonle Sap river.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cambodia’s law against insulting the king is relatively new and it is not clear how the activists have done so.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The three face between five and 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The prosecution told the Reuters news agency that “the evidence collected by the police was an insult to the king” although they did not explain exactly how the law had been violated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Critics have warned that the law – introduced in 2018 – is being used as a tool to silence dissent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The activists are Sun Ratha, 26, Ly Chandaravuth, 22, and Yim Leanghy, 32, all members of activist group Mother Nature.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They were detained on 16 June while documenting waste discharge into the Tonle Sap river near the royal palace,\u00a0according to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The Cambodian government has relentlessly targeted Mother Nature Cambodia,” Naly Pilorge, director of the rights group Licadho, told Reuters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“This marks an escalation with the outrageous charges of ‘plotting’.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mother Nature founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported in 2015 after he criticised plans for a controversial dam, was charged in absentia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last month, three other campaigners linked to the group were sentenced to between 18 and 20 months in jail for organising a march against a lake in the capital being filled with sand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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