"Leader in Koh Kong land dispute is jailed", 22 August 2018

Heng Sok, who represented 50 families in a land dispute with Oknha Ly Yong Phat was sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined two million riel ($500) by the Koh Kong Provincial Court...on a charge of “using violence on a property owner”.

Sok, 48, is said to have put up posts...demarcating 103 hectares of disputed land with the aim of negotiating with Yong Phat. Chan Nakry, a manager at the Ly Yong Phat company, filed a complaint against Sok....

...[T]he decision to detain Sok is unfair as he represented families who cultivated the land in question before the company received a government concession for the same.

...Nakry...claimed that Sok had encroached on the company’s land, despite the firm explaining its claim to him several times.

“The land does not belong to them because the company has a licence issued by the government and the boundaries are set . . . what we do is based on legal procedures,” he said.