Bandith found guilty

PPP 26 June 2013

By May Titthara

Former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith exits the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh in February. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Svay Rieng

After 16 months of delays and legal wrangling, former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith was found guilty of unintentional violence and sentenced to a year and a half in prison yesterday for shooting three demonstrating garment workers in 2012. As of press time, however, the still-powerful local figure had not been arrested.

In addition to 18 months in jail, Bandith was also ordered by the Svay Rieng Provincial Court to pay 38 million riel (about $9,500) in compensation to the victims – 20 million to Buot Chenda, 10 million to Nuth Sakhorn and the remaining eight million to Keo Near.

Presiding judge Leang Sour, upon issuing the verdict, said that “the court also issues the warrant for accused Chhouk Bandith today”.

However, Svay Rieng provincial police chief Hem Saban told the Post that while he had received word of Bandith’s sentencing he had yet to receive a warrant for his arrest.

“When we get the arrest warrant from the court to arrest Chhouk Bandith, we will implement it immediately,” he said.

Despite the conviction and an order for his immediate arrest from the court, Bandith – who was present for neither his trial nor his sentencing – was still at large yesterday evening, to the consternation of rights monitors and victims alike.

Sakhorn, who delivered a baby earlier this month, applauded the verdict, but expressed concern for her safety with her assailant – who is currently employed by the provincial government – still on the loose.

“I fear that with the perpetrator staying outside of detention he will come to mistreat me at night,” she said.

Bandith shot Sakhorn in the back while she demonstrated for better working conditions in front of Kaoway Sports factory – a supplier to sportswear giant Puma – in February 2012. Sakhorn’s fellow protesters, Chenda and Near, were shot through the lung and in the arm, respectively.

Though he was fingered by none other than Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, Bandith evaded detention and even saw the charges against him dropped late last year. Prosecutors at the Appeal Court took up the case and judges later ordered the lower court to re-charge Bandith and hold a trial, though Bandith refused to appear during hearings this month, citing a technical error in the summons.

Rights groups said yesterday the outcome was just the latest marring in the poorly-handled case.

“What we’re still worried about is whether law enforcement officials dare to carry out the court’s verdict, and if they do not dare, it means the verdict is only a piece of paper,” said Am Sam Ath, senior investigator for the rights group Licadho, adding that he was disappointed the charge had never been changed to something stronger than unintentional injury.

Moeun Tola, head of the labour program at the Community Legal Education Center, called the sentence a “slap on the wrist” in a joint statement with Licadho, and noted that such “verdicts do nothing to help the international reputation of Cambodia’s vital garment sector”.

Rights group Adhoc had similarly harsh words for the sentence and its implementation.

“The sentence against him does not reflect his crimes, and the fact that he remains at large means justice has still not been served in this case,” the group said in a statement. “Adhoc cannot welcome the sentence if in practice it means so little.”

Bandith could not be reached yesterday, and his lawyer, Mao Sam Vuntheary, declined to comment, saying “I am busy”.

Bandith’s co-defendant, criminal police chief Sar Chantha – who was quietly charged with the shooting last year and widely believed to have been a fall guy – was cleared of allegations of unintentional injury yesterday. He was convicted of illegal weapons use, however, and sentenced to six months probation – a verdict that rights groups similarly decried, though for different reasons.

“The Svay Rieng Provincial Court ordered charges against Sar Chantha, the Bavet [City] police chief implicated in the shooting, to be dropped,” Adhoc’s statement read.

“He was, however, found guilty of the illegal use of a weapon, fined one million riel and put on probation for six months. There is little credible evidence linking Mr. Chantha to the crime of shooting the garment workers and he appears little more than a scapegoat, punished now in order to save face for those who sought to implicate him.”