Lay Samean and Ananth Baliga

Rights group Adhoc defended itself yesterday against allegations it had asked 24-year-old hairdresser Khom Chandaraty to lie about her alleged affair with CNRP acting president Kem Sokha, calling on Chandaraty to retract the claim.

At a press conference yesterday, Adhoc director Thun Saray said the organisation had extended Chandaraty legal services because she was distressed and scared when she approached them, but was taken aback when she changed her statement while appearing before the public prosecutor.

“We do not want her to thank us or apologise, but we just want her to give us justice by saying that we have not advised her to tell lies,” he said.

read more http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/adhoc-denies-srey-mom-allegations

Cash was charity, not bribe, says arrested official's family

Wed, 27 April 2016

Mech Dara

Cash offered to the mother of Kem Sokha’s purported mistress by an opposition commune councillor was intended to help the woman’s family amid the ongoing scandal but was never delivered, the local official’s wife said yesterday.

Sam Rainsy Party member Seang Chet, a commune chief in Kampong Cham, was detained on Sunday by the Anti-Corruption Unit after Sokha’s purported mistress, Khom Chandaraty, complained she had been offered $500 to lie about her relationship with the CNRP leader.

Her complaint, in which she also accused several members of civil society of instructing her to lie to authorities, followed an abrupt U-turn by Chandaraty, who had previously strenuously denied she was Sokha’s lover.

read more http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cash-was-charity-not-bribe-says-arrested-officials-family