A prominent labor union leader was sentenced on Wednesday to 18 months in prison for criticizing a casino for overworking employees and pushing for the arrest of a union representative.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court upheld an earlier guilty verdict of incitement against Mam Rithy, 35, the vice president of the Cambodian Labor Federation.
In a live broadcast on his Facebook page in 2022, Mam Rithy accused the Jinbei 2 Casino Company in Sihanoukville, a seaside resort town, of requiring employees to work 12-hour days.
He also alleged that the company colluded with provincial authorities to arrest a worker who led the casino’s union. The worker was detained in the same holding area as a group of Chinese male prisoners, he said in the broadcast.
Sihanoukville court officials later released the worker on bail. Soon after, the company filed a complaint against Mam Rithy, who is also the president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation.
Mam Rithy was arrested in May and was quickly convicted of incitement, which he appealed. Judge Thon Darith on Wednesday rejected the appeal and upheld the sentence, which included a 2 million riel (US$500) fine.
Mam Rithy smiled and spoke to his wife just after the decision was announced. Officials from the U.S. Embassy, Human Rights Watch and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights attended the hearing.
‘This is a true story’
The Cambodian Labor Federation president, Kong Athit, said the verdict violated the country’s labor laws, which clearly protect workers’ rights. The court should review the law on trade unions, as well as international conventions on labor rights, and release Mam Rithy, he said.
The court only sentenced Mam Rithy because he dared to make critical comments, said Yi Soksan, a senior official at human rights group Adhoc.
“The authorities and the court should consider investigating whether what Mr. Mam Rithy said on the radio or on social media was true or not,” he said. “If it is not true, then we should accuse him of incitement or defamation. But this is a true story.”
Mam Rithy’s remarks were only aimed at helping workers who had suffered abuses by the owners of gambling companies, according to his wife, Thi Daly.
“I also request that the court, the government pardon him and let him return home soon to reunite with his family,” she said. “I am a woman alone, and it is difficult to take responsibility for four children.”
The Jinbei casino is owned by Chinese national Chen Zhi, who also holds Cambodian citizenship and is an adviser to Senate President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet.
Chen’s Prince Group conglomerate, which includes real estate, malls, banks and more across Cambodia, has earned billions of dollars. But the company has also been described in Chinese criminal court judgments as a “notorious transnational online gambling criminal group.”
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.