URGENT ACTION

UA: 226/12 Index: ASA 23/013/2012 Issue Date: 1 August 2012

GOVERNMENT CRITIC DETAINED
Government critic Mam Sonando, aged 71, was arrested at his home in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, on 15 July. He has been charged with offences against the state and if convicted faces a long prison sentence. He is a prisoner of conscience.
The day after he was arrested, Mam Sonando was taken to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for questioning. After a few hours he was charged with six offences, including “insurrection” and “inciting people to take up arms against the authorities”. He is held in Phnom Penh’s CC1 Prey Sar Prison, awaiting trial. His lawyer’s request for bail was rejected, and he has lodged a second request.

Mam Sonando owns one of Cambodia’s few independent radio stations, Beehive Radio. He is also the head of a popular non-governmental organization that promotes human rights and democracy, the Association of Democrats.

The charges against Mam Sonando stem from a speech made by the prime minister on 26 June, in which he accused the radio station owner and members of the Association of Democrats of being behind what he claimed was a plot for a village in Kratie province to secede from Cambodia and become an independent state. The Cambodian authorities had used this as a pretext for the violent eviction in mid-May of around 1,000 families living in that village, during which the security forces shot dead a 14-year-old girl.

The real reasons for Mam Sonando’s arrest seem to be the popularity of the Association of Democrats and his radio broadcasts. The prime minister’s 26 June speech came soon after Beehive Radio broadcast a report about a complaint lodged at the International Criminal Court that accuses Cambodia’s government of committing crimes against humanity by displacing thousands of people through forced evictions. Amnesty International therefore considers Sonando a prisoner of conscience, held for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression.

Since Mam Sonando’s arrest, members of the Association of Democrats have been harassed, briefly detained and prevented from collecting thumbprints for a petition calling for his release.

See full UA here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA23/013/2012/en