Article 104 (new) of
the Cambodian Constitution assures parliamentary immunity for Senators. It reads in full:
Members of the Senate have parliamentary
immunity.
No member of the Senate can be charged,
arrested, detained, or imprisoned for giving advice or expressing his opinion
in the course of fulfilling his duties, no matter what. The charge, arrest, detention, or
imprisonment of any member of the Senate may occur if there is an agreement from
the Senate or the Permanent Committee of the Senate during the course of
meetings of the Senate, except in the case of fragrante delicto[1]. In this latter case, the relevant ministry
(-ies) immediately shall file a report to the Senate or to the Permanent
Committee of the Senate for a decision.
The decision of the Permanent Committee of
the Senate shall be forwarded to the full Senate as top priority for a meeting
to adopt by a two-third (2/3) majority decision of all members.
In the above-mentioned cases, the
imprisonment, the charge of any member of the Senate shall be suspended if the
Senate has decided to suspend by a three-fourths (3/4) majority of all members
of the Senate.
[1]
Direct
translation from Khmer which is very vague: an actual criminal offense, or an actual felony, or a felony in reality.
No one reading the Khmer (except for the drafter of the laws,
particularly the Code of Criminal Procedures which has similar but not
identical phrasing) would know that the exception is extraordinary and refers
specifically to an extremely narrow situation of “flagrante delicto”. The US and other developed Western legal
systems use the Latin phrase flagrante delicto to emphasize and
highlight the extraordinary nature of this extreme case of suspending basic
rights of an individual and imbuing the judicial police with extraordinary
powers.
[Submission by Ms. Theary C. Seng]
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