"Lor Peang villagers appeal against in absentia land dispute verdict", 10 September 2021

A group of villagers from Lor Peang village in Kampong Chhnang province brought a complaint appeal against the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision … to sentence four villagers in absentia to one year in prison for incitement to commit a felony, intentional damage and use of violence on property occupied by a person ...

Oum Sophy, 41, one of the four villagers who were sentenced in absentia, said that she was appealing against the court’s decision along with fellow defendants Reach Seima and Pheng Rom…

“We appealed because we are not satisfied with the court’s decision,” Sophy said. She told … that she was currently involved in three cases in total, two before in Phnom Penh and another before the Kampong Chhnang provincial court…

The Lor Peang community has been embroiled in a nearly two-decade long land dispute with KDC, which claims ownership of 512 hectares located in Kampong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune…

In a separate case … the Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted Sophy of incitement to commit a felony and handed her a one-year suspended sentence for her involvement in a long-running land dispute in Kampong Chhnang province.

Sophy said that …, her group of five villagers also submitted a letter to the appeals court requesting the right to represent 29 families from Ta Ches commune in Kampong Tralach district also involved in the land dispute.

… KDC lawyer Phat Pouv Seang said that he could not talk about that case, only saying that the villagers had the right to appeal the sentence…