Joint Press Statement

Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) and Legal Aid of Cambodia (LAC) today express their strong support for their lawyers working on the Kong Yu/Keat Kolney case as well as for the villagers with whom they are working.

On June 19, 2007, Ms. Keat Kolney brought a complaint before the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (BAKC) against three LAC lawyers and seven CLEC lawyers. The complaint accuses the lawyers of inciting villagers in Kong Yu village, Ratanakiri to file a lawsuit against Keat Kolney to reclaim their land. They are also accused of instructing the villagers to talk negatively about Keat Kolney and to give false information to the media.

On June 22, 2007, the BAKC asked our ten lawyers to respond to the complaint. We fully support a fair and transparent procedure for handling complaints regarding professional conduct of lawyers, and our lawyers have submitted their responses to the BAKC yesterday. In this reply, our lawyers have cleared their names by explaining the facts of the land dispute case and their actions on behalf of our clients. We support all of our lawyers’ actions in this case, and are certain that they operated well within the Code of Ethics and Bar Regulations. LAC and CLEC have full confidence that the BAKC will dismiss the complaint after it has heard both sides and weighed the merits of Keat Kolney’s complaint.

On June 21, 2007, Keat Kolney also filed two criminal complaints with the Ratanakiri provincial prosecutor. While we have not yet seen these complaints, we understand that one complaint criminally accuses the villagers themselves for cheating and fraud, while the other complaint accuses the LAC and CLEC lawyers of criminally inciting the villagers to cheat and fraud.

While any citizen may file a complaint to the prosecutor, LAC and CLEC oppose in the strongest terms any criminal prosecution of lawyers for lawful acts done within the scope of their duties. By providing vigorous legal advice and protection to their clients, the lawyers in this case have not committed any crime. LAC and CLEC support their lawyers and reaffirm their commitment to defend the poor and disenfranchised of Cambodia.

For further information, please contact
* LAC: Mrs. Peung Yok Hiep, Director of Legal Aid of Cambodia, +855 12 823 745 or director@lac.org.kh.
or
* CLEC: Mr. Yeng Virak, Executive Director of CLEC, +855 12 801 235 or virakyeng@clec.org.kh