Cambodia Sentences Green Campaigners For 'Plotting' Over Activism

A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced 10 environmentalists to between six and eight years in jail over their activism in a case condemned by rights campaigners as a "crushing blow" to the kingdom's civil society.

The activists from Mother Nature, one of Cambodia's few environmental advocacy groups, denied charges of plotting against the state, which they said were politically motivated.

Am Sam Ath, operations director of rights group LICADHO, told AFP the court sentenced the activists to jail terms ranging from six to eight years.

He said three of them -- including Mother Nature co-founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a Spaniard deported from Cambodia in 2015 -- were sentenced to eight years for plotting against the government and insulting the king.

Seven others were sentenced to six years in prison on unspecified plotting charges.

Four defendants were seized by police outside the court and taken away, according to an AFP journalist, while LICADHO said a fifth was arrested later.

The remaining five defendants, including Gonzalez-Davidson, did not attend court and have not been detained.

Ahead of the verdict the four activists and a few dozen supporters had marched to the court in a mock funeral procession, wearing white, a colour of mourning.

"We cannot see the justice anywhere because we did not do anything wrong," Mother Nature member Phuon Keoraksmey, 23, told reporters outside the Phnom Penh court.

The group were just young people working for social justice and to "protect natural resources", she added.

Am Sam Ath of LICADHO said the verdict was "very disappointing".

"Today, the court has ruled that youth activists fighting for environmental protections and democratic principles are in effect acting against the state," he told AFP.

A lawyer for the activists condemned the sentences and said he would consult with his clients on whether to appeal against the ruling.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was "gravely concerned by the conviction and harsh sentencing".

"The increasing use by Cambodian authorities of lese-majeste and other articles of Cambodia's criminal code to penalise the exercise of human rights is deeply worrying," said spokesperson Thameen al-Kheetan.

"We call for the case to be reviewed on appeal in line with international human rights law. We also urge the authorities to review the charges," he said, particularly as six of them were minors at the time of the alleged acts.

Amnesty International condemned the judgement and called for the activists to be freed.

"Today's decision is another crushing blow to Cambodia's civil society," Amnesty's Montse Ferrer said in a statement.

"The government has shown time and time again that it will not tolerate any dissent," she added.

Right Livelihood, a Sweden-based campaign group that gave Mother Nature an award last year, also condemned the sentences and called for the activists' release.

"This situation highlights the urgent need for greater protection of environmental activists and their right to peaceful protest," the organisation said in a statement.

Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona rejected allegations that the administration was prosecuting its critics.

"Legal cases have been take up against only those who committed acts against the law," he told AFP.

The charges against the 10 activists related to the group's activism between 2012 and 2021.

Its members had raised issues around the filling-in of lakes in Phnom Penh, illegal logging and the destruction of natural resources across the country.

The tussle over protecting or exploiting Cambodia's natural resources has long been a contentious issue in the kingdom, with environmentalists threatened, arrested and even killed in the past decade.

Three of the activists sentenced on Tuesday had previously been jailed for organising a peaceful march protesting the filling-in of a lake in the capital to create land for real estate developments.

From 2001 to 2015, a third of Cambodia's primary forests -- some of the world's most biodiverse and a key carbon sink -- were cleared, and tree cover loss accelerated faster than anywhere else in the world, according to the World Resources Institute.

Much of the cleared land has been granted to businesses in concessions that experts say have driven deforestation and dispossession in the country.