CAMBODIA: Young man died in pre-trial detention due to medical negligence

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a young man named Yan Sok Kea died on 28 April 2008 due to lack of medical treatment while in pre-trial detention in Prey Sor Prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. He was detained on 14 November 2007, fell ill while in detention, and was taken to a hospital on 12 April 2008 where he was not given any medical treatment.

CASE DETAILS: (based on information from the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC))

Yan Sok Kea, 21, from Battambang province, was arrested while on a visit to the remote northern province Preah Vihear,  on 14 November 2007 for alleged “destruction of forest” when the police forcibly evicted 317 families for clearing forests for habitation and cultivation in O’ Chheu Teal Village, Cheam Ksarn district, Preah Vihear province. Due to the gravity and local sensitivity of the case, and as many other villagers were arrested as well, Yan, together with his fellow arrestees was brought before the court of Phnom Penh. He was then detained at Prey Sor prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

He was a healthy man at the time of his arrest. During an undisclosed stage of his detention, he fell ill. Apparently he had been ill for some time and was in a serious condition already as he could not move his limbs and was delirious when he was taken to Preah Monivong Hospital in the centre of Phnom Penh for treatment on 12 April 2008. But he received no medical treatment at that hospital.. The medical staff reportedly claimed that there was a lack of medicine, money to buy it and medical equipment to treat him. Yan was apparently left to die.

A couple of days after his “hospitalization” Yan’s mother sought help from ADHOC, a human rights NGO, which immediately intervened to get him transferred to a more modern and better endowed hospital named Preah Sihanouk (formerly Russian) Hospital. However, the bureaucratic procedure was so complicated and lengthy that the transfer was not allowed until some 10 days later, on 27 April. By then Yan was already dying and the medical staff of Preah Sihanouk Hospital were unable to save him. He died the next day, on 28 April.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The police arrested Yan Sok Kea and brought him before the prosecutor of the court of Phnom Penh who charged him with the crime of “destruction of forest”. His case was transferred to a judge of that court for investigation who ordered his detention. Destruction of forest is a felony which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

In Cambodia there is no separate pre-trial detention centres and accused persons are kept in custody in prison and are treated like convicted prisoners. Prey Sor Prison, like all other prisons in Cambodia, is very crowded. It has a medical unit, but medical attention does easily not come forth for all sick prisoners. Like all prisons in the country, it is under the responsibility of the Prison Department of the Ministry of Interior.

By virtue of article 509 of the Code of Criminal procedure, the Prosecutor General, the prosecutor attached to and the investigating judge of the court of first instance of Phnom Penh municipality have an obligation to make regular inspections to Priey Sor Prison. Apparently, they had not done so, and the investigating judge who was in charge investigating Yan’s case, did not know about his illness when asked about his death. It is reported that the same investigating judge did not conduct any investigation either since he had ordered Yan’s detention. He was left to languish in that prison.

In Cambodia the Supreme Council of the Magistracy is responsible for the appointment and discipline of judges and prosecutors. This council is chaired by the king. The Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General attached to the appeal Court are two of its 9 members.

Cambodia has adhered, through its criminal law commonly known as the UNTAC Law, to Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which prescribes, among other things, medical treatment of sick prisoners. It has also a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture which prescribes, among other things, the creation a national preventive mechanism whose main task is to regularly examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in places of detention. But so far, this mechanism has not been created yet.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write your letters to the authorities listed below to request them to conduct an investigation into Yan Sok Kea’s death, take action against officials responsible for this death, institute regular inspections of prisons, and set up an independent commission to regularly examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteru on the Question of Torture, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of human rights in Cambodia and OHCHR in Cambodia calling for interventions in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER