AS-093-2007
May 3, 2007
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
CAMBODIA: Dysfunctional criminal justice system has led to unfair trials and impunity for the mastermind behind Chea Vichea’s murder
In August 2005, the Phnom Penh Court convicted and sentenced two men — Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun — to 20 years in prison for the murder of Chea Vichea in January, 2004. Chea Vichea was the leader of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, which, with 70, 000 members, is the largest union in the country. The two men subsequently appealed against their sentences. In early April 2007, the Court of Appeals heard their appeal but upheld the Phnom Penh court’s 20-year sentences.
Both trials had many flaws. Both courts simply based their judgments on the prosecution witnesses’ statements to the police, which were read in court, and on the confession that Born Samnang made to the police, prosecutor and investigating judge in the lower court following his arrest. They completely ignored Born Samnang’s retraction of his confession when interrogated the second time by the same investigating judge, on the grounds that the police had used threats and intimidation and had tried to extort a confession from him by offering him a job with the police. They ignored his allegations of police ill-treatment and extortion and the defense witnesses’ exculpating testimonies in court. The Courts of Appeals even ignored the prosecutor’s plea for a “reinvestigation” of the case in his summations, on the grounds that there were “huge gaps in the police investigation,” a plea which should put in question all evidence on which the court based its decision to uphold the conviction of the two men and, indeed, the conviction itself.
All of these flaws expose how dysfunctional the Cambodian criminal justice system is at present. This breakdown has led to the conviction of the two men in question as a result of unfair trials. It has also led to the impunity of a third person, named Chhit, who was alleged to be behind Chea Vichea’s killing, as no investigation into Chhit’s involvement has been conducted.
In his “confession” to the police, prosecutor and investigating judge, Born Samnang reportedly said that Sok Sam Oeun had asked him whether he would dare kill when a man had hired both of them to kill a man named Chea Vichea. Sok told Born that the hirer, named Chhit, would pay the two of them the sum of US $ 5000 for the killing. A sum of US $ 1500 was to be paid up front, with the rest to be paid after the killing. Sok added that Chhit had a score to settle with Chea. Both the police and the prosecutor were therefore informed of Chhit’s involvement, but the police did not conduct any investigation, which they should have done as a matter of duty. Similarly, the prosecutor failed to exercise his authority and to direct the police to investigate.
In his investigation in February 2004, Hing Thirith, the investigating judge, ordered Hun Song, the police investigator who had interrogated Born, to investigate Chhit’s involvement. In his reply, Hun Song said Born did not know Chhit, and that it was Sok who had relations with him. However, Hun Song added that, because Sok had denied his crime and also due to his relations with Chhit, it was “difficult” for the police to investigate. The matter has been stuck there ever since. In January 2005, a year after that killing and five months before the first trial of the two men, Khieu Sopheak, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior, to which the Cambodian police is attached, reportedly admitted that “after the arrest of the two suspects, it seems we lost track of who was behind the killing.” At the trial of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun before the lower court in August 2005, Chhit’s involvement was only alluded to in passing, causing no concern to the court, the police or the prosecutor present there. At the appeal hearing, Chhit was not even mentioned.
Despite claims that investigations were difficult prior to the trial of the two men, notably as Sok, who was alleged to have known Chhit and received money for the killing, protested his innocence and did not cooperate, such investigations are vital and still need to be carried out. However, now that Sok has been “convicted” and is serving a 20-year jail sentence, there does not seem to be any more reason for Sok to be uncooperative and hide Chhit’s identity and involvement.
Furthermore, there is another person who could help the police inquiry into Chhit’s involvement in the murder: Heng Pov, the former Phnom Penh police commissioner, who was in charge of the investigation into the murder and who is now himself in jail. While fleeing the country, Heng Pov told L’Express, a French weekly magazine, in August 2006, that he “was convinced that the two crimes were organized by the same people,” referring in addition to the murder of a former member of Parliament in 2003. Heng Pov revealed that, “a few days after the murder” of Chea Vichea, he had been summoned to see his superior, Hok Lundy, the national police commissioner, where he was told that “the killers have been identified and arrested.” He further said that “during the questioning” of these men, he was summoned again to Hok Lundy’s home “to pick up a gun which he [Hok Lundy] affirmed to be the crime weapon” and which Hok Lundy claimed had been brought over to him by a police officer under the order of General Chay Synarith, and that it belonged to one of the suspects. Heng Pov added that, “it did not take me long to understand that the two suspects, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, had nothing to do with the murder.”
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the Cambodian government, prosecution and police to investigate without delay the involvement of the person named Chhit who is allegedly the mastermind behind Chea Vichea’s murder. Such an investigation is required if Cambodia is to endow itself with a functional and trusted criminal justice system, which does not condemn its citizens for crimes they have not committed and does not allow impunity for perpetrators of grave crimes and human rights violations.
