Cambodia: Release immediately land rights activist Yorm Bopha!

Date: November 19, 2013

As an appeal hearing for land and housing rights activist YORM BOPHA will be held at Cambodia’s Supreme Court on 22 November 2013, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) reiterates its call to the Cambodian authorities for Ms. Yorm Bopha's immediate and unconditional release.

Ms. YORM Bopha is a 29-year old land rights activist from the Boeung Kak Lake community in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

She has been actively involved in her community’s struggle against forced evictions and emerged at the forefront of a campaign for the release of thirteen of her fellow activists (the “Boeung Kak 13”) who were arrested, charged, convicted and imprisoned as a result of a peaceful land rights demonstration in May 2012.

Ms. Yorm Bopha was arrested on 4 September 2012 and is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after being found guilty on bogus charges of assault widely perceived as related to her activism. Her conviction was upheld on appeal on 14 June 2013 when the original custodial sentence of three years was reduced to two on the grounds that she did not directly commit violence. It is alleged by the court that she and her husband masterminded the assault of two suspected thieves. Her husband’s full three-year prison sentence was suspended by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, while Ms. Yorm Bopha was immediately detained.

Ms. Yorm Bopha then appealed to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, she remains detained in correctional center Police Judiciaire Prison, Phnom Penh, where she is expected to serve the rest of her sentence until September 2014. The OMCT was able to meet Ms. Yorm Bopha in September 2013, during a mission in Cambodia in the framework of its project “Defend the defenders”. She was in good health at the time of OMCT’s visit.

On 22 November 2013, an appeal hearing for Yorm Bopha will be held at Cambodia's Supreme Court in Phnom Penh.

The facts and circumstances of her arrest, as well as a thorough examination of the charges and evidence produced against her, clearly suggest that the criminal proceedings against Ms. Yorm Bopha were instigated in retaliation for her activities as a high-profile land and housing rights advocate. The judicial process was marred by significant irregularities and her fundamental rights have been repeatedly breached. Her sentencing thus represents a gross miscarriage of justice and is yet another blow to rule of law and the credibility of Cambodia’s judicial system.

The OMCT considers that Ms. Yorm Bopha is being detained merely for being at the forefront of the campaign in favour of the Boeung Kak Lake community’s rights and calling for the release of community members who were arbitrarily arrested in May 2012 after protesting their forced evictions. As such Ms. Yorm Bopha’s imprisonment amounts to arbitrary detention as it merely aims at obstructing her human rights activities, therefore contradicting international human rights standards and Cambodia’s obligations. Accordingly, she should be released immediately and unconditionally.

The OMCT more generally urges the authorities of Cambodia to conform to the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights instruments ratified by Cambodia.

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