PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - On the night of Jan. 16, Kol Sat could not locate her husband even after contacting everyone she thought might know the whereabouts of Kong Mas.
The next morning, her mother-in-law called with news: Police were questioning Kong Mas after arresting him the day before.
Kol Sat, a garment worker in Phnom Penh, told VOA her husband had accepted a friend’s invitation to have coffee only to be picked up by authorities around 9:30 a.m., just hours after Kong Mas arrived in Phnom Penh from Siem Reap province, where he worked as a construction supervisor.
His arrest was related to Facebook posts, said Kol Sat, 35.
Among other things, he criticized the Cambodian government for its role in the possible suspension of Everything but Arms (EBA), the European Union’s initiative that grants Cambodia preferential access to its markets, a structure that can be removed if beneficiary countries fail to respect core human rights.
Since then, the EU has taken .
“I think it is just constructive criticism and he is just an ordinary citizen and he has personal rights to post,” Kol Sat said. “I think perhaps it is not wrong.”
Article 41 enshrined in the Constitution of Cambodia states that “Khmer citizens shall have the freedom to express their personal opinions, the freedom of press, of publication and of assembly.”
Kong Mas, 33, was one of the leading members in Svay Rieng province of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. His arrest is the latest in a series related to Facebook posts that the Cambodian government said were intended “to insult and/or incitement,” a . It carries a prison sentence of six months to two years.
The first prominent arrest occurred in August 2015 and resulted in university student Kung Raiya being charged with incitement for posting
In July 2017, police arrested Rom Chamroeun for p that read, “Hun Sen I will kill you. Because if you aren’t killed, Cambodia will never have peace. Me and my siblings will shoot Mr Hun Sen someday, and his wife and children.”
In February 2018, Sam Sokha was arrested after a video surfaced on Facebook that showed her throwing a shoe at a roadside billboard depicting Hun Sen and National Assembly President Heng Samrin. She could be heard saying, “These are the men who are destroying our nation.” She fled to Thailand requesting political asylum and Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party when she returned to Cambodia.
All told, more than a dozen Cambodians have been arrested or detained for making political statements on Facebook, passed in February 2018 that criminalizes criticism of the king and allows for sentences as long as five years. In some cases, however, the posters were released after writing a letter of apology to Hun Sen and pledging to stop political posting on Facebook.
Sam Sokong, the lawyer for Kong Mas, said his client’s arrest was “completely politically motivated” because the evidence consists of posts from April to December 2018 criticizing the government, supporting the campaign to not vote in , and calling for Sam Rainsy, an opposition leader, to return to Cambodia.
On Jan. 16, just before his arrest, Kong Mas posted a 2-day-old Reuters story saying the EU had decided to take the first step in sanctioning [Cambodia] by removing the preferential treatment of its products such as garments and rice. Then he shared Sam Rainsy’s schedule of public meetings during a U.S. visit. And he posted that Hun Sen’s administration ignored problems faced by farmers such as the falling market prices for their output, according to his post viewed by VOA Khmer.
“When authorities or the government are angry, they will file complaints and 100 percent of the time, the court has to take action in accordance with the complaints, whether or not they’re based on the law,” said Sam Sokong, who has represented five people arrested for their Facebook posts.
Kong Mas has been charged with insulting and incitement.
The government has a history of silencing voices it believes have been raised in opposition.
In November 2017, the CNRP, which nearly defeated Hun Sen’s ruling party in the 2013 elections, .
This came after a crackdown on critical media outlets including the closure of the influential English-language Cambodia Daily after the publishers received a large, overdue tax bill, and several local radio stations that broadcast factual programming in rural Cambodia, where ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) traditionally draws its support base.