The Battambang provincial court on Wednesday announced its decision to drop five-year-old trespassing charges against six villagers involved in a long-running land dispute.

But one of the men, community representative Chem Keo, remained behind bars awaiting a verdict from the Appeal Court on related charges.

“I announced a verdict to lift the illegal trespassing charges against the six men,” said Judge Duch Sok Sarin, though he declined to explain why.

Ho Chheng Ourn, a lawyer for Legal Aid Cambodia who is representing the families, said the judge had failed to give a reason when he read out the verdict.

The fight over 124 hectares of farmland in Battambang’s Thmor Kol district has dragged on since 1999, when Ieng Oeung filed a complaint against 38 families he accused of illegal trespassing. The families said they had been living on the land since the mid-1980s.

Authorities evicted the families in 2002. Since then, there have been five separate incidents of arrests after various evictees were allegedly caught trespassing on the land.

In addition to the 2004 charges that were dropped Wednesday, Chem Keo was also arrested along with four other men in 2006. The other four men were ordered to pay 10 million riels (US$2,409) each to Ieng Oeung and then released on suspended sentences. The Appeal Court said Tuesday that it would issue a ruling on the case on November 26.

Read the original story at the Phnom Penh Post.

Mr. Chim was denied justice at every stage of the proceeding: the appeal, the hearing, and the sentence all flagrantly violated Cambodia’s land laws and rules of procedure. Mr. Chim was convicted of trespassing without the proof required by law or legal representation, and was sentenced to a term in excess of the legal limit.

Prosecutor Sor Yous Thavreah’s appeal against Mr. Chim was inadmissible. Under Article 47 of the Land Law (2001), land disputes must be decided by special Cadastral Commissions before criminal trespass charges can be brought. Without a decision as to the ownership of the land, a criminal court cannot legally convict a defendant of trespassing. For that reason, the Battambang Court dismissed the charges against Mr. Chim in criminal case #343, 25 May 2006. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeal illegally heard the case.

Further, neither Mr. Chim nor his lawyers at Legal Aid of Cambodia (LAC) were informed that the hearing was going on. The Court of Appeal heard his case and convicted him in absentia, in violation of Article 388 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Mr. Chim’s sentence was also illegal. He has already spent ten months in provisional detention, imprisoned during the investigation and trial. Under Article 194 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, his sentence should include his provisional detention. But the Court of Appeal sentenced him to one year starting now, a major violation of the law and of Mr. Chim’s basic human rights. Mr. Chim suffers from diabetes, and will suffer severely from his excessive sentence.

The Court of Appeal ruling is a grievous human rights abuse. It violates Cambodian and international law at every level, and threatens the safety of vulnerable landowners all over Cambodia. LAC urges that the ruling be overturned, and the prosecutors and judges involved be investigated for serious misconduct.

These cases occurred in Presphos and Daunba communes of Korskralar district; in Orumchek village of Prekchik commune of Mong Russey district; and Ovoi Preng village of Khnach Romeas commune of Bavel district, Battambang province. The cases have happened due to Provincial Cadastral Commission does not have enough capability to take any appropriate action, particularly in preventing the violence resulting from the land dispute.

In this case, CHRAC has observed that provincial court has interfered in the work of the Cadastral Commission in resolving the land dispute which is contradictory to the Inter-Ministerial Statement. The provincial court often referred to the Articles 258 and 243 of the 2001 Land Law interpreting them in an inaccurate manner. Due to this reason, the local authorities had threatened the people to face of possible arrests and lose their as well as can not access to other social services. In addition, many victims who suffered from these acts continuously complained about the authorities for making lose of their case files and about no-responses from the authorities to resolve their complaints which had been submitted for resolution with regards to the land dispute cases.

CHRAC urges the Battambang provincial authority to take legal actions and resolve all land disputes and make it easy for the people to return to their lands depending on the actual land possession and their obvious living.

For further information please contact:

-Mrs. Peung Yok hiep, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Cambodia (LAC), Tel: 012 823 745

-Mr. Chan Soveth, Monitor of ADHOC, Tel: 016 937 591

-Mr. Yin Mengly, Coordinator of ADHOC’s Battambang Provincial Office, Tel: 012 970 823

-Mr. Seng Senkaruna, Investigator of KKKHRO, Tel: 012 532 796

Even if the verdict did not state who the disputed land belong to but it is seems Mr. Keo has the rightful owner of his land that he has been farming since 1990. In spite of the fact that justice took its rightful course it still looks like wealthy businessmen can overrule the rule of law and can take justice in their own hands by summoning the Battambang investigating judge to detain Mr. Keo unlawfully. Defending legal aid lawyer Mr. Diep Kulam is currently finding ways to get his client out of prison as soon as possible. Mr. Keo suffers from life threatening diabetes and hepatitis. So far the Ministry of Justice, Cambodia Human Rights Committee, Prosecutor General of the Supreme Court and the Chief of Discipline Council of Supreme Council of Magistracy seems not able to help his client.

“This incident reflects badly on the human rights situation and the rule of law in Cambodia,” says Mrs. Peung Yok Hiep, director of Legal Aid of Cambodia. “If Cambodia wants to become a developed country we have to respect the rule of law and cannot succumb to the whims of rich businessman. Recently our Prime Minister Samdach Hun Sen clearly appealed to all judges to stop detaining people in civil disputes over land. Disputes over land should not be dealt with as criminal cases (infringement of property rights) but as civil cases as is done in most developed countries.”