RFA
A Spanish environmentalist who led a campaign against a controversial dam project on Tuesday accused Cambodia’s courts of violating national and international law because judicial authorities plan to hold a case against him in absentia while he is prevented by the government from re-entering the country to stand trial.
Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the Khmer-speaking former director of the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, was deported from the Southeast Asian nation in February 2015 following the government’s refusal to renew his visa.
Opposition groups and local NGOs said Gonzalez-Davidson was expelled for to prevent him from organizing further opposition to the planned Chhay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. The U.S. $400-million China-led project backed by a ruling Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker would have forced hundreds of ethnic minority families off of their ancestral land and destroyed the habitats of endangered animals, they said.
Cambodia: After five years, still no justice for Kem Ley s death ifex.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ifex.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Supporters pay their last respect to Kem Ley at Wat Chas pagoda in Phnom Penh in 2016. Hong Menea
Five years on, Kem Ley still at heart of debate
Sun, 11 July 2021
The murder of social and political analyst Kem Ley remains a subject of debate as civil society organisations (CSOs) observed his death on July 10 and expressed scepticism of the handling of the case.
Ley was gunned down on the morning of July 10, 2016, while he was sitting in the StarMart at a Caltex gas station on the corner of Monivong Blvd and Mao Tse Tung Blvd in the capital’s Chamkarmon district.
Five years on, Kem Ley still at heart of debate phnompenhpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phnompenhpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
July 9, 2021
Today, in advance of the fifth anniversary of the unlawful killing of prominent political commentator and human rights defender Kem Ley, the 45 undersigned organizations reiterate their call for the Cambodian authorities to create an independent Commission of Inquiry tasked with conducting an independent, impartial and effective investigation into Kem Ley’s death.
To date, the Cambodian government has consistently failed to achieve justice for Kem Ley and his family.
On 10 July 2016, against a backdrop of escalating attacks on civil society and the political opposition in the country, Kem Ley was shot in a café at a petrol station in central Phnom Penh.