Yorm Bopha verdict upheld

PPP - 15 June 2013   By Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell

Jailed Boeung Kak activist Yorm Bopha hugs her son outside the Supreme Court. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Boeung Kak lake land-rights activist Yorm Bopha will remain in prison after the Court of Appeal upheld her guilty verdict late Friday, but suspended one year of her three-year sentence.

 The judges’ decision to uphold the intentional violence charge against the 29-year-old mother sparked fury from her supporters who clashed with police as she left the court inside a prison van.

Presiding judge Taing Sun Lay said Bopha had masterminded an axe and screwdriver attack on motodops Nget Chet, 28, and Vath Thaiseng, 24, which he said was carried out by Bopha’s brothers Yorm Kanlong and Yorm Seth last August.

“Based on evidence provided by the victims and witnesses, the court decides to uphold the verdict of the municipal court,” he said. “But we sentence Yorm Bopha to two years in prison. The remaining one year of her original [three-year] sentence is suspended.”

The judges also ordered 10 million riel [$2,500] to be paid to each victim.

After the verdict was delivered, Bopha screamed at the judges.

“Until now, the court’s judges have not given us justice,” Bopha shouted.

Outside, as guards led her away, she repeated cries that the decision was “injustice for the poor”.

Speaking outside court, Bopha’s husband, Lous Sakhon, said no strong evidence had been presented proving she had ordered anyone, let alone her brothers – who had not been at Boeung Kak for more than a year before the incident – to attack the two motodops.

“The court knew that they have no evidence to charge us. But they have still charged us anyway,” said the 56-year-old, who was given a suspended prison term last December over the same incident.

“I will tell my defence lawyer to appeal to the Supreme Court. I think the Supreme Court might support all the other courts, but I will still appeal because I want to show the whole world what justice is like in Cambodia.”

During the first part of the appeal hearing last week, a presiding judge took the two alleged victims to task over their conflicting versions of what happened.

In Friday’s hearing, the defence also criticised prosecution witnesses for providing contradictory tales of which brother had attacked the motodops.

“Again, the prosecution’s witnesses and the victims were saying that they only overheard someone saying – after the attack – that Bopha’s brothers were responsible for it,” said Ham Sunrith, Bopha’s lawyer. “The answers of the victims and the witnesses do not clearly prove who actually attacked them.”

Since Bopha’s arrest in early September, rights groups have said she was targeted due to her involvement in land protests.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said he will continue saying the case is linked to the long-running Boeung Kak land dispute.

“I am so disappointed with the verdict today,” he said.

But Vath Sareth, the father and uncle of the motodops, insisted justice had been served.

“I accept the decision of the Appeal Court. The presiding judges have given us justice,” he said.

His son Thaiseng, who says he received head injuries in the attack, told the Post he was “very grateful to the judges for giving me justice”.

When Bopha was convicted and sentenced in late December, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court also ordered her to pay a combined $15,000 to the victims.

Sareth claimed in testimony on Friday that he had paid more than $3,500 in medical bills.

But judges said the receipt Sareth had given the court showed only $100 in medical expenses.

“I accept the reduced amount of compensation the judges have ordered be paid to us,” Sareth said later.

As rain poured down, protesters who had been outside the court since 1pm, briefly clashed with police on Sothearos Boulevard.

Four women fainted during and after the clashes.

Supporters then marched to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house, near the Independence Monument, demanding intervention.