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| District security personnel during a protest rally in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Source: AP. |
Cambodia: Beaten human rights activists become suspects in assault case
Asian Correspondent | 8 February 2017
THE Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued a warrant on Tuesday summoning human rights activists, Am Sam Ath and Chan Puthisak, to court today on charges that they incited an attack on two Daun Penh district security guards during a World Habitat Day protest in October.
According to the Phnom Penh Post, the two appeared in court on Wednesday to face the charges despite video footage clearly showing that the two men were actually the victims of the assault.
In a video widely disseminated after the event, the guards can be seen beating Puthisak’s head. The footage also shows Sam Ath attempting to intervene before he too is punched in the face by guards.
The pair submitted their own complaint to Phnom Penh police following the incident.
The Daun Penh district security guards are not official police in Cambodia, but are auxiliary security forces hired by the Phnom Penh authorities.
The security forces rose to notoriety following the 2013 elections when they were repeatedly deployed to violently disperse peaceful protests.
Opposition lawmakers have expressed their concern at the security force’s ability to escape accountability through anonymity, prompting them to submit a letter to the Minister of Interior stating that the use of the security guards as a de facto police force was illegal and those involved in the group should be arrested and charged for the violence they have committed.
Sam Ath, a respected human rights monitor at the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) for nearly 20 years, and Puthisak, a land rights activist and former prisoner of conscience, have called the case against them “disgusting” and claimed it was a move by authorities to defame them.
“It is so ironic. I am speechless after having received the summons,” Sam Ath told the Phnom Penh Post.
“[It can be] seen clearly on social media pictures that I was surrounded and beaten by five or six security guards, and I was helped by the people – if not, I would had got serious injuries or lost my life.”
Puthisak feels the case is a threat to freedom of expression. “This is an injustice for me because the victim becomes the suspect.”
Image taken from mobile phone at the World Habitat Day march in Phnom Penh, October 2016. The image clearly shows district security guard striking Am Sam-Ath. Source: Image via Facebook Puthisak Chan
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists released a statement yesterday condemning the summons and demanding the government not only drop the charges, but investigate the security guards who attacked peaceful demonstrators.
“The investigation of Sam Ath and Puthisak by the Cambodian authorities is a typically absurd and undisguised case of judicial harassment,” said Champa Patel, Southeast Asia and Pacific director at Amnesty International in the statement.
“As usual, unnecessary and excessive use of force by the para-police goes unpunished, and those who work to promote and protect human rights find themselves subject to criminal proceedings.”
The collection of rights organisations are concerned that this particular case falls within a wider pattern of judicial intimidation in Cambodia. There are 26 political activists currently incarcerated in Cambodia, many of whom were arrested by the district security forces following violent clashes during a 2014 protest. The rights groups accuse the authorities of taking no meaningful steps towards bringing those guards responsible for the violence to justice.
Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, sees this case as part “of an extensive effort by the Cambodian authorities to discredit the legitimate work of human rights organizations” and instructs authorities that “this campaign of intimidation against rights advocates has to stop now.”
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