Koh Kong Villagers File Corruption Complaint Against Court
Families say they were pushed from 352 hectares of land and forced to relocate to Preah Sihanouk province.
Villagers who say they were ousted from their land in Koh Kong province after losing a land dispute filed suit against the provincial court on Monday through the national Anti-Corruption Unit. In their complaint, 32 families from Srey Ambel district say the court ordered in favor of a powerful businessman in 2008 due to falsified documents abetted by five court officials. Huan Mony, chief of the Koh Kong court and an investigating judge, was among those named in the complaint. “I don’t know what they are complaining about,” he told VOA Khmer Monday. “I do not understand, because I, the judge, decided the case in conformity only with procedure.” He said the villagers were using the ACU to “unfairly complain.” However, villagers who delivered the complaint to the unit on Monday said they had been pushed from their land while the influential business owner took over. “We’ve come here to the Anti-Corruption Unit to demand our lost farmland,” Seng Thy, a village representative, told reporters outside the unit offices Monday. Families say they were then pushed from 352 hectares of land and forced to relocate to Preah Sihanouk province just south of the district. A spokesman for the ACU said it had received the complaint and will now review it to see whether it warrants investigation. The ACU, which was formed under a new anti-corruption law last year, has already arrested several senior officials in connection with other crimes, including the prosecutor for Pursat provincial court.