REAKSMEY KONGKEA

  Buth Reaksmey Kongkea    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak   Sokhonn on April   27’s afternoon met with   a delegation of Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs), consisting of 53 business representatives and stakeholders, on the occasion of their trade mission to Cambodia.  The trade mission, organized by the Royal Embassy of Cambodia to Malaysia together with SMEs Malaysia, the Malaysian Business Council of Cambodia (MBCC), and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), aims to further strengthen Cambodia-Malaysia relations by fulfilling the vast untapped commercial and investment potentials between the two countries based on mutual confidence and benefits.   During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn expressed his appreciation for the steady inflow of FDI from Malaysia to Cambodia and for the significant increase of bilateral trade between Cambodi...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea   Minister of Tourism Thong Khon on Friday met with a delegation from the Biodiversity Protection Fund led by the British Ambassador to Cambodia Tina Redshaw and the Landscape Protection Biodiversity Fund’s President Robbie Celriog Hughes at the Ministry of Tourism.   Khon said that the main purpose of the meeting was to discuss development of the Lower Mekong ecotourism and to learn more about the challenges in the field of ecotourism and support policies, in particular to examine the possibility of promoting cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism on the application of support projects through the Biodiversity Protection Fund.   During the meeting, Minister Khon said that in the past, Cambodia has successfully organized ecotourism communities.   He added that the successful areas such as ecotourism sites in Chi Phath,  Areng and many other eco-tourism communities have turned villagers’ livelihoods from deforestation or hunting ...

Chan Sorphea  Japan’s top military commander General Yamazaki Koji started a two-day official visit to Cambodia on April 28, 2022 which analysts said marked a shift towards a balanced foreign policy.   General Koji, Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces will hold talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen and Defense Minister Tea Banh.  He will also hold bilateral talks with General Vong Pisen, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and pay a courtesy call on Lt. Gen. Hun Manet, Deputy Commander-in-Chief and Commander-in-Chief of the Army.      

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea  Phnom Penh Appeal Court on April 28   upheld the sentencing of two men and a woman, for killing a garment worker in 2018.  The Phnom Penh Municipal court handed down prison terms ranging from 30 years to life sentence in 2019.  “The Judges’ Council of Phnom Penh Appeal Court has considered that the ruling made by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court is appropriate for the heinous crime,” said the court’s presiding judge Yun Narong. He identified the accused as Eth Chay, 31, Keo Sophaneth, 28 and his wife Ath Oeun, 31.  All the three were charged with “premeditated murder” under Article 200 of the criminal code. The court identified the victim as Khnoey Soeng, female, 31, a money lender who was working with a Chinese-owned garment factory in Prey Veng province. The murder took place in June 2018 at the home of the accused in Treav 2 Village, in in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district. And the body of the victim was later found by villager...

  Buth Reaksmey Kongkea Kong Sam An, a former Cambodian National Rescue Party [CNRP] council member in Memout district, Tboung Khmum province, yesterday pleaded for his freedom with the Supreme Court.    “I am old and living with many diseases in prison. I ask the Supreme Court to drop my charges and release me from the prison so that I my chronic diseases can be treated and I can be with my family,” he said.   Sam An was arrested on September 20, 2020 at his house in Tboung Khmum province’s Suong district, Suong commune and convicted on September 22, 2020, of inciting the people to go against the government and conspiring with former CNRP leader Sam Rainsy to overthrow the government committed between 2018 and 2019.   He was sentenced by the Tboung Khmum provincial court to 8 years and 6 months jail on two counts of “plotting and incitement to cause social unrest” under Articles 453, 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code.   The former high school prof...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea  The Phnom Penh Appeal Court has upheld a 59-year-old farmer’s life sentence meted out after he was convicted of killing his 60-year-old-brother-in-law with an axe.  “The Phnom Penh Appeal Court upholds the December 17, 2018, ruling of the Svay Rieng Provincial Court,” Court’s Presiding Judge Plong Samnang said yesterday.  “Nuon Na alias Chresh has the right to re-appeal the ruling   of the Phnom Penh Appeal Court to the Supreme Court within 30 days if he does not agree with it,” she said.  Na was charged with killing So Vang at about 6 pm on November 4, 2017, in Svay Rieng province’s Kork Pring commune, Svay Chroum district,     On December 17, 2018, Na was sentenced by the Svay Rieng Provincial Court to a life sentence in prison.  He was charged with “premeditated murder” under Article 200 of the Criminal Code.   Na appealed it to Phnom Penh Appeal Court but his conviction was upheld. Na then...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea A former spokesman of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF) on April 27, 2022  withdrew his appeal that was before the Supreme Court.   Thuy Vy, 33, told the Supreme Court judges “I have decided to withdraw my appeal because the Appeal Court had commuted my 7-year jail sentence by two years”.   “I have served more than three years in prison and I will be released from prison in 2024,” Vy told the court.   Vy, from Banteay Meanchey province’s Mongul Borei district, was convicted for conspiring with former CNRP’s president Sam Rainy to stage a coup against the government in 2019 and was arrested on October 29, 2019.   He was charged with “plotting” under Article 453 of the Criminal Code and   sentenced on November 11, 2020, by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to 7 years in prison.   The court also sentenced in absentia the KNLF’s President Sam Serey, Sen Sorinthang, 45, and Ou Kimhouth, 43, both representatives of KNL...

  Chan Sorphea   Mr. Prak Sokhonn, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Cambodia, on April 26, 2022 met with Lieutenant General John Murray Sanderson, the Former Force Commander of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cambodia.   During the meeting, Minister Prak Sokhonn told Lt. General Sanderson that Cambodia has transformed from a country that accepts UN peacekeeping forces to a country that has sent its forces to join peacekeeping missions around the world.   Minister Prak Sokhonn participated in peacekeeping missions in eight countries in Africa and the Middle East.   Lt. General Sanderson congratulated and praised Cambodia for sending thousands of troops to UN peacekeeping operations in countries around the world.   During the meeting, Minister Prak Sokhonn reiterated UNTAC's achievements in Cambodia: holding general elections in 1993, despite a boycott b...

Chan Sorphea   Two Vietnamese men died on the spot and two others were seriously injured  when a truck carrying fish escaped from a land truck and hit a light pole in Takhmao City.  The incident happened at 4:30 pm on April 25, 2022 on National Road 21B at the entrance of Serey Mongkol satellite city in Tuol Krasaing village, Roka Khpos commune, in Kandal Province’s Takhmao city.   Traffic police officer said that the two Vietnamese men who died were identified as Ly Yaing Baing, 50; and Nguyen Yaing, 46.  They were killed and buried in an overturned car.   The two Vietnamese injured were identified as Nguven Le, 50; and Yor Yainglin, 20.     They all lived in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district in Koh Teav commune.        

  Buth Reaksmey Kongkea   A 59-year-old man intervened to stop a quarrel between his daughter and son-in-law but ended up stabbed in the abdomen and died from his injuries.   Bun Vanna’s son-in-law Heng Saoreaksmey said that his wife Bun Sofe stabbed her father but the 30-year-old said her husband did it.   Saoreaksmey, 31, a former naval officer, said he and Sofe were arguing at their home in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tumpon commune, in Tnoat Chroum village, when Sofe’s father intervened.   Saoreaksmey told the Phnom Penh Court yesterday that Vanna was stabbed when he tried to forcibly remove a knife from his daughter during a struggle. Court’s presiding Judge Chhun Davy said Saoreaksmey and Sofe were charged with murder under Article 199 of the Criminal Code and face imprisonment of between 10 and 15 years if convicted.   She added that they were arrested on August 13 last year after Saoreaksmey and Sofe had allegedly stabbed their father...

  Lieutenant General John Murray Sanderson, the Former Force Commander of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), who once served in a peacekeeping operation here,   arrived over the weekend to hold talks with top leaders on further strengthening diplomatic relations between Australia and Cambodia. The 10-day visit, together with his wife Lorraine Sanderson, is also to mark the 30th anniversary of UNTAC, and as part of the 70 th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Cambodia. In a media release issued by the Australian Embassy in Cambodia, Lt Gen Sanderson together with his wife will pay a courtesy call on His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, and Her Majesty Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk. Both of them will also meet Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior ministers besides provincial governors, key officials and civil society representatives. “These meetings provide an opportunity to reflect on the pers...

  Buth Reaksmey Kongkea A farmer was arrested and charged yesterday by Koh Kong provincial court for possessing more than 7,000 kilograms of ‘yellow vine’ (teramnus libialis), a plant used in traditional medicine but can be processed into an illegal drug. Koh Kong provincial environment department deputy chief Keo Sophal told Khmer Times yesterday that the accused was identified as Nang Pov, female, 43, from the province’s Botum Sakor district, Andoung commune. Sophal said that the accused was arrested and charged with growing, transporting and selling more than 7,000 kilograms of the plant and faces up to two years in prison if convicted. He noted that Pov was arrested on Friday at her house in Andoung commune’s Chi Meas village. He said that she was arrested after provincial environmental officers led by the court’s deputy prosecutor Vai Phirum raided her house at about 10:30 am on Friday. “She had grown the plants, which is a rare and prohibited species, without perm...