Yorm Bopha to be freed on bail

[Sheryl]

Yorm Bopha to be freed on bail


Boeung Kak lake land rights activist Yorm Bopha leaves the Supreme Court on Friday after judges sent her case back to the Appeal Court. Scott Howes

The Supreme Court has ordered the release of Boeung Kak land activist Yorm Bopha – but only on bail – after ruling that her case should be sent back to the Court of Appeal for a retrial.

Khem Pon, one of five judges presiding over Bopha’s appeal, said the appellate body, which heard the case in June, did not address some of the evidence presented.

“The Supreme Court moves this criminal complaint back to the Appeal Court for further investigation and a retrial.”

Hundreds of Bopha’s supporters, many from the Boeung Kak community, joined with monks outside the Supreme Court for the hearing.

After little more than two hours of testimony and judges’ deliberation, Bopha walked from court to an awaiting prison van and the cheers of the ecstatic crowd on the streets outside.

Her own feelings, however, were mixed.

“Even though the Supreme Court is releasing me, they still consider me guilty. I’m scared they will arrest me again – just like they did with Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun,” she said, referring to the two men wrongly imprisoned over the murder of union leader Chea Vichea.

“The Supreme Court should have dropped the charges against me.”

Bopha was arrested in September of last year and accused of ordering her two brothers to beat two motodops at Boeung Kak with an axe and screwdriver. She was sentenced in December to three years in prison. Rights groups say the charges are baseless.

Bopha’s lawyer, Ham Sunrith, said after the hearing that the Supreme Court had not specified when the case would be reheard.

“But she will be released on bail today.”

Speaking outside the court, Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher, welcomed Bopha’s release.

“But we’re disappointed this whole saga is continuing,” he said. “She should never have been arrested in the first place. She shouldn’t have spent any time in prison.… This case is symbolic of a trend where human rights defenders are a target for their legitimate work.”

But E Sophors, president of motodops group the Cambodia Confederation Development Association, said the court had given the complainants, motodops Vath Thaiseng and Nget Chet, no justice.

“The Supreme Court did not order the suspects to pay compensation or uphold [bopha’s] prison sentence,” he said. “But when the authorities … arrest Bopha’s brothers, everything will become clear. And everybody including local and international NGOs will understand who masterminded the attack.”

Vath Sarath, the father and uncle of the alleged victims, also said the Supreme Court should have demanded compensation be paid.

“The judges have not responded to the victims here. They are the victims of violence.”

In the courtroom earlier, Sunrith, Bopha’s lawyer, said the lower courts had ordered Bopha and her husband, Lous Sakhorn, to pay the motodops $15,000 in compensation.

“But I’ve checked medical bills that the victim gave the court – they totalled about $15,” he said.”

source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/yorm-bopha-be-freed-bail


-- Phnom Penh Post 2013-11-22

[Sheryl]

After prison, Bopha undeterred

Shelving any thoughts that 14 months in prison had deterred her from protesting, Yorm Bopha rushed to the capital’s Borei Keila community yesterday morning to try to stop authorities from forcing evictees from an abandoned building.

Bopha was one of about 10 Boeung Kak activists called on to help after military police and security guards tried to remove a number of families from a building they once lived in, resulting in a disabled man being dragged out, villagers said.

“When we had heard, we went straight there,” said Bopha, who was released on bail from prison on Friday. “We told police to stop ejecting them from the building and offer them a solution first.

“There were many of us there, so police allowed them to stay inside temporarily.”

Borei Keila evictee Tim Sakmony, 65, said a group of military police and security guards dragged her son, Uon Kang Pinith, a disabled 47-year-old recyclables collector, out of the empty building after he had joined a number of families seeking shelter inside.

“His recyclables were getting stolen downstairs, so he tried to take them up there. But they dragged and pushed him out of the building.”

The officers then left Borei Keila, in the capital’s Prampi Makara district, threatening to return later to remove the other evictees, Sakmony said. As of last night, the families were still staying on the first floor.

It’s been almost two years since hundreds of residents were violently evicted from their homes at the site.

Developer Phan Imex had agreed to build 10 high-rise buildings to house more than 1,700 families in exchange for the land on which their houses lay. However, the company built only eight of the 10 high-rises and relocated those who missed out to the squalor of relocation sites far from the capital.

Those who refused relocation have lived in tents behind the eight buildings since.

After heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, the ground on which the evictees’ tents are pitched was a mixture of mud and rubbish yesterday. The site, where everyone from small children to the elderly eat, sleep and wash in, stunk of human waste.

“Living here is getting worse because of the disgusting smell,” Sakmony said. “We are busy protesting, so we don’t have enough time to make money to buy food.”

Following her release from PJ prison on Friday evening, Bopha pledged to “struggle until she died” to keep protesting for the rights of communities such as Boeung Kak and Borei Keila.

“Even though . . . I face being arrested again, I will keep joining peaceful demonstrations to defend our rights.”

Bopha – who also joined a protest at a pagoda in Russey Keo district yesterday – said that before releasing her, authorities had warned her not to protest with fellow Boeung Kak activist Tep Vanny.

“I will not stop. I need to find justice for myself and other communities,” she said.

On Friday, the Supreme Court sent her case back to the Appeal Court for a retrial.

“Even though the Supreme Court is releasing me, they still consider me guilty,” she said after the hearing. “I’m scared they will arrest me again – just like they did with Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun,” she added, referring to the two men wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of union leader Chea Vichea.

The activist was arrested in September last year, accused of ordering her brothers to beat two motodops with an axe and screwdriver at Boeung Kak.

She was sentenced to three years in prison, a term reduced to two years on appeal in June.

Bopha’s husband, Lous Sakhorn, 57, was convicted on the same charge, but his sentence was suspended.

Rights groups have called allegations against both of them baseless and aimed at silencing their community.

-- Phnom Penh Post 2013-11-24