A Boeung Kak lake resident is detained by police officers during a violent clash over disputed land at the Boeung Kak site in Phnom Penh May 22, 2012. (REUTERS/Samrang Pring) |
Tue, 26 Jun 2012
BANGKOK (TrustLaw) – A group of Cambodian women jailed after protesting in support of families whose homes were destroyed during a forced eviction should be freed and their convictions overturned, Amnesty International says.
On May 24, the Phnom Penh
Municipal Court charged, tried, convicted and sentenced 13 women,
including a grandmother, to 30 months in prison for illegal occupancy of
public property among other charges, the rights group said.
The trial took place just 48
hours after the women - community representatives - were arrested
following a peaceful protest at Boeung Kak Lake where thousands of
people have been forcibly evicted from their homes since August 2008.
The lake is in the capital Phnom Penh.
An appeal hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
"These women are prisoners of conscience,
imprisoned solely for speaking out on behalf of their community and for
peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression," said Amnesty's Cambodia researcher Rupert Abbott in a statement.
"The unfair convictions should be overturned, and the women immediately and unconditionally released," he added.
Abbott also said the charges against them are baseless and their trial was "grossly unfair".
Amnesty said the court denied
requests from the defence lawyers to give them time to prepare their
cases and the defendants were not given access to evidence or allowed to
call witnesses.
According to the rights group,
the municipality of Phnom Penh entered into a 99-year lease agreement
with Shukaku Inc, owned by a ruling party senator, for an area covering
the Boeung Kak Lake and surrounding land, in 2007.
The lease was made without any
consultation with the affected population and residents were subjected
to harassment and threats by company workers and others, it said.
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