Yorm Bopha
Detained Since: January 21, 2014.
Charges: Organizing the beating of two motodops in 2012.
Sentence: Three year suspended sentence and 10 million riel payment (about $2,500) to the alleged victims.
Biography: Yorm Bopha is a Cambodian land rights activist noted for her opposition to development and forced evictions around Boeung Kak Lake. According to Front Line Defenders, on January 21, 2014, Bopha was arrested while petitioning outside the U.S. and French embassies for the release of 23 people who were jailed during a clampdown on worker's protests earlier that month. Two years earlier, on December 27, 2012, she had been convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment for "intentional violence with aggravating circumstances," leading several human rights groups to protest on her behalf. On June 14, 2013, her sentence was reduced to two years' imprisonment, and on November 22, 2013, Bopha was released on bail.
Yorm Bopha was RELEASED upon the suspension of her sentence.
Updates:
- On 28 June 2016, activist Yorm Bopha was found guilty for the second time by the Court of Appeals in Phnom Penh of organising the beating of two motorbike taxi drivers in 2012. She was sentenced to three years in prison, of which she already served 14 months and 18 days, with the remainder of her sentence to be suspended. She was also ordered to pay the alleged victims 10 million riel (June 29, 2016, The Phnom Penh Post).