"Appeals Court Hears Challenge to 2014 Convictions from Garment Workers Protest", 17 August 2023

The Court of Appeals held a hearing … in a case dating back to 2014, when ten men were convicted of charges related to violence at demonstrations during a nationwide garment workers strike. The court’s verdict on the appeal is scheduled to be announced on September 29.

The ten people were arrested in January 2014 at a protest outside a South Korean-owned Yakjin factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Senchey district, where demonstrators demanded higher wages. Witnesses reported that military officials guarding the factory instigated clashes with protestors, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

Defendant Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democratic Informal Economy Association (IDEA), explained that … he went to the factory to monitor the situation after receiving information that workers were protesting.

“I am not satisfied that the Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted me because I was the victim of soldiers who beat me up almost to death,” he told the court ... “It is very unfair for me that I was arrested and detained by the Special Forces Airborne 911 Unit.”…

… Sam Sokong, the defense lawyer for the ten people convicted, has asked the higher court to annul the … verdict, saying that his clients did not instigate the violence.

“As we have seen evidenced in video clips, soldiers used violence by beating up my clients,” he said. “Soldiers threw water bottles into groups of protesters and later used sticks and slingshots to crack down on protesters.”…