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| Sand being loaded onto a ship in Koh Kong in 2015. |
Flash News
Mother Nature Activists Arrested Filming Sand Dredging Activity
| 13 September 2017
Two activists from the Mother Nature environmental group, arrested
while filming sand dredging-related activities in Koh Kong province,
have been charged on suspicion of violating privacy and incitement to
commit a felony. Dem Kundy and Hun Vannak were arrested in Kiri Sakor
district Tuesday – just two days after Mother Nature posted an online
video highlighting potential smuggling of silica sand to Taiwan.
The video
has been viewed more than 950,000 times on Facebook. The group has
repeatedly sought to expose discrepancies in trade figures indicating
large scale sand smuggling to several countries including India and
Singapore.
If convicted of the two charges, the activists face up
to two years in prison and maximum fines of six million riel (US$1,500)
under article 495 (incitement to commit a felony) and article 302 of the
Criminal Code (unauthorized recording of a person’s image).
Three
other Mother Nature activists were arrested while campaigning against
illegal sand dredging in August 2015 and sentenced to 18 months in
prison. The group’s co-founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a Spanish
national, was arrested and deported in February 2015.
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