Cambodia accused of conducting political trial by arresting green activists | Environmental News

Human Rights Watch accused the government of trying to “muzzle criticism.”

A Cambodian court convicted a group of environmental activists for conspiring against the government and insulting the king.

The 10 activists, from the conservation group Mãe Natureza, were sentenced on Monday to six to eight years in prison. Human rights NGOs claimed that the trial was intended to “muzzle criticism of government policies”.

The charges relate to Mother Nature’s activism between 2012 and 2021, documenting suspected pollution in the Tonle Sap River, which flows into Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake and is an important fishing hub.

The group also raised issues related to the filling of lakes in Phnom Penh, illegal logging and the destruction of natural resources across the country.

The additional accusations of insulting the king, directed at three of the activists, center on an internal Zoom meeting that leaked political cartoons.

After the sentencing, four of the defendants were arrested by police outside the court, AFP reported.

Six others were sentenced in absentia, including Mother Nature co-founder Alejandro Gonzales-Davidson. The Spanish citizen was deported from Cambodia almost a decade ago.

‘Inhumane and cruel’

The arrest of the activists comes against a backdrop of growing concerns about freedom of expression in Cambodia under the government of Prime Minister Hun Manet, who took power last year after decades of rule by his father, Hun Sen.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) last month condemned the trial as an attempt to “muzzle criticism of government policies.”

“Not only is this regime out of touch with reality, it has also shown us how inhumane and cruel it can be towards those who dare to stand up for what is right,” Gonzales-Davidson told Reuters.

The government previously denied that the trial was politically motivated, saying it did not prosecute critics, only those who committed crimes.

The dispute over the protection or exploitation of Cambodia’s natural resources has been a contentious issue in the kingdom, with environmentalists threatened, arrested and even killed over the past decade.

Three of the activists sentenced on Tuesday had already been arrested for organizing a peaceful protest march against the filling of a lake in the capital to create land for real estate developments.

From 2001 to 2015, a third of Cambodia’s primary forests – some of the most biodiverse in the world and an important carbon sink – were deforested and the loss of tree cover accelerated faster than anywhere else in the world, according to the World Resources Institute.

Much of the deforested land was granted to companies in concessions that, according to experts, caused deforestation and expropriation in the country.