An environmental activist, front right, raises his V-sign together with supporters as he leads a protest near Phnom Penh Municipality Court, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Ten members of a nonviolent environmental activist group in Cambodia were convicted on Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, receiving prison sentences of six years each.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ten members of a Cambodian environmental activist group that campaigned against destructive infrastructure projects and alleged corruption were each sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison on charges of conspiring against the state.

Three of the members of the group Mother Nature Cambodia were also convicted of insulting Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, for which they were sentenced to an additional two years in prison, giving them a total of eight years behind bars.

Only five of the defendants attended the trial and the others were convicted in absentia. They included four Cambodians whose whereabouts are unknown and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, a Spanish national who co-founded the group and was deported in 2015 and barred from ever returning to Cambodia.

The five who attended the trial were arrested outside the court after the verdict and sentences were issued. They had marched to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court with supporters, dressed in traditional white clothing worn at funerals, which they said represented the death of justice in Cambodia.

Phun Keoraksmey, a 22-year-old member of the group whose mother was by her side, said she was prepared to go to prison.

“But I never want to go back to jail because I never did anything wrong. But I will never run from what I am responsible for. I chose this way, I chose this path,” she said.

The Cambodian human rights group Licadho called the verdict “very disappointing.” “Today, the court has ruled that youth activists fighting for environmental protections and democratic principles are in effect acting against the state,” it said. “It is astounding that Cambodian authorities are convicting youth activists who are advocating for clean water in Phnom Penh, protecting mangrove forests in Koh Kong and warning against the privatisation of land in protected areas and presenting it as an attack against the state.” The group last year was the co-winner of the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes characterised as the “Alternative Nobel,” issued by a Stockholm-based foundation to organisations and individuals working to “safeguard the dignity and livelihoods of communities around the world.” Three members of the group who were in jail at that time were denied permission by Cambodian court authorities to travel to Sweden to accept the award.

Mother Nature, founded in 2012, was deregistered as a nongovernmental organisation by the Cambodian government in 2017 but its members vowed to carry on its work, with some serving jailtime in recent years.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch last month accused Cambodian authorities of trying the activists on politically motivated charges “to muzzle criticism of governmental policies.” “For more than a decade, Mother Nature has campaigned against environmentally destructive infrastructure projects, exposed corruption in the management of Cambodia’s natural resources, and mobilised young Cambodians to defend the country’s dwindling biodiversity,” it said in a statement. It noted that Cambodia has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates and levels of wildlife trafficking.

Gonzalez-Davidson and two other defendants were charged with defaming the king in statements made during an online meeting.

Cambodia’s government has long been accused of using the judicial system to persecute critics and political opponents. The government insists the country observes the rule of law under an electoral democracy, but parties seen as challengers to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party have been dissolved by the courts or had their leaders harassed.

Under former Prime Minister Hun Sen, who held power for almost four decades, the government was widely criticised for human rights abuses that included suppression of freedom of speech and association. His son, Hun Manet, succeeded him last year, but there have been few signs of political liberalisation.

In this photo provided by Cambodia’s Prime Minister Telegram, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony in Beijing on September 15, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

The leaders of China and Zambia announced an upgrading of their ties to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership on September 15, as the world’s second-largest economy forges deeper ties with the Global South.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also met new Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet earlier the same day, and with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this week.

The trio of leaders from Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America speak to China’s growing role in those parts of the world. Chinese state banks have financed roads and other infrastructure projects and Chinese companies have built factories, mines, hotels and casinos.

China has in turn won diplomatic support from many Global South countries on contentious debates and votes at the U.N. and from Cambodia in China’s territorial disputes with other Southeast Asian nations in the South China Sea.

Its outreach to the Global South has taken on greater geopolitical import as China seeks allies to push back against growing pressure from the United States and its partners on multiple fronts.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported online that Mr. Xi and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema announced the upgraded partnership at a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, a monumental building on one side of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

That came two days after China announced it had upgraded diplomatic ties with Venezuela to an “all weather” partnership — a status China has granted to only a handful of countries — after the Xi-Maduro meeting.

Development loans from China and others have saddled some countries, including Zambia, with unsustainable debt levels, sparking debt crises that stymie economic development. More than 40% of Cambodia’s $10 billion in foreign debt is owed to Chinese institutions.

Hun Manet made China his first official foreign visit after succeeding his father, Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for 40 years.

The U.S. had shown disapproval of Hun Sen’s undemocratic moves and is uneasy over the expansion of a Cambodian naval facility with Chinese assistance. Hun Sen consistently denied that Cambodia had granted China the right to set up its own military base at Ream Naval Base.

After his meetings in Beijing, Mr. Hun Manet plans to join other Southeast Asian leaders this weekend in southern China at the 20th ASEAN-China Expo, which promotes cooperation in trade, investment and tourism.