Ten Cambodian environmental activists face prison sentences of between six and eight years after a court on Tuesday convicted them on charges criticized by international observers as politically motivated.
Five activists from the Mother Nature group, which had worked to expose corruption and harmful infrastructure projects, were taken into custody in front of Phnom Penh Municipal Court as crowds of supporters shouted their disapproval.
Western governments and human rights groups slammed the verdicts that showed the shrinking space for peaceful activism in Cambodia. Since 2017, all of Cambodia’s independent media outlets have been forced to close and most of its political opposition has been crushed through the courts or through intimidation.
The court's decision aimed at a non-governmental organization was "another crushing blow to Cambodia's civil society," Amnesty International's deputy regional director for research, Montse Ferrer, said in a statement.
“Mother Nature Cambodia is a renowned activist group that has brought attention to environmental degradation fuelled by long-standing corruption in the country,” Ferrer said.
“Instead of listening to young leaders at the forefront of the environmental movement, the Cambodian government has chosen to jail those that dare to speak out,” he said. “The government has shown time and time again that it will not tolerate any dissent.”
‘Violently dragged’
The convictions came on charges of conspiring against the state in a case that covered several instances of activism, including the 2021 filming of sewage draining into the Tonle Sap river in front of Phnom Penh's Royal Palace.
Three of the defendants were also convicted of insulting King Norodom Sihamoni. They were sentenced to a total of eight years in prison, while the other seven were given six years behind bars.
Five of the 10 defendants are either in hiding or live outside of the country and were tried in absentia, including the Khmer-speaking founder of the Mother Nature group, Spanish environmentalist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported from Cambodia in 2015.
One of the convicted activists, Phuon Keoreaksmey, told supporters that they would refuse to feel dispirited.
“So long as they still freely evict our people from their land; so long as they take our land to give it to the powerful; so long as they continue to destroy our forest; so long as they continue to jail us arbitrarily while we have not done anything wrong; this means that we cannot be dispirited,” she said.
Another convicted activist, Thon Ratha, told supporters that the verdict was unsurprising.
“We knew clearly that we would have this day,” he said. “We knew clearly that we would lose our freedom at one point of time.”
Phuon Keoreaksmey, Thon Ratha and the other activists were then taken into custody "by at least 50 police officers and security personnel" outside the court and then "violently dragged" into waiting cars, according to human rights group Licadho.
Nuth Savana, the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior's prisons department, told Radio Free Asia that the five were each sent to different prisons.
‘Deep concern’ for their safety
Registered with Cambodian authorities in 2013, Mother Nature has worked over the years to protect the country’s environment, exposing irregularities in development and construction projects and helping villagers organize to protect their land.
Gonzalez-Davidson was deported from Cambodia in 2015 after the government refused to renew his visa. Opposition groups and local NGOs said he was expelled to prevent him from organizing against a planned hydropower dam in southwestern Koh Kong province.
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Mother Nature suspended operations in Cambodia in 2021 amid a round of criminal charges. Tuesday's convictions and sentencing was related to those charges.
Phuon Keoreaksmey, Thon Ratha and another Mother Nature activist who was convicted on Tuesday – Long Kunthea – petitioned the Ministry of Justice last year to be allowed to travel to Sweden to receive the prestigious Right Livelihood Award for their environmental activism in Cambodia.
The request was denied to the three activists, who at the time were facing charges in the case decided on Tuesday. Their bail conditions stated they couldn’t leave the country.
The Stockholm-based Right Livelihood said on Tuesday that there were “deep concerns” for the safety of the activists, now that they have been taken into custody.
"We condemn this unjust verdict and demand #Cambodia release them NOW!," the organization said on Facebook.
Advocacy now ‘an attack against the state’
Cambodian human rights group Licadho called the verdict “astounding.”
“Today, the court has ruled that youth activists fighting for environmental protections and democratic principles are in effect acting against the state,” the group said.
“Cambodian authorities are convicting youth activities who are advocating for clean water in Phnom Penh, protecting mangrove forests in Koh Kong and warning against the privatization of land in protected areas and presenting it as an attack against the state.”
Marc Thayre, the United Kingdom’s deputy ambassador to Cambodia, called the sentences “very disconcerting” and noted that Mother Nature activists had raised “legitimate concerns” over the years about Cambodia’s environment.
"The actions taken against them are disproportionate," he wrote on Facebook. "All citizens should be able to engage in subjects that affect their future including the environment without fear of prosecution. Freedom of Expression needs to be protected if Cambodia is to move to the next stage of development."
The European Union's ambassador to Cambodia, Igor Driesmans, said on X that he was "deeply concerned about increasing persecution & arrests of human rights defenders in Cambodia."
Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.