Nationality Cambodian | Name Yorm Bopha | |
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Known for activism against Boeung Kak development, 2012 imprisonment | ||
Free yorm bopha
Yorm Bopha (born c. 1983) is a Cambodian land rights activist noted for her opposition to development around Boeung Kak lake. She was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for "intentional violence with aggravating circumstances" on 27 December 2012, leading several human rights groups to protest on her behalf.
Contents
- Free yorm bopha
- Interview with yorm bopha land rights activist cambodia
- Boeung Kak project
- 2012 assault conviction
- Personal life
- References
Interview with yorm bopha land rights activist cambodia
Boeung Kak project
In 2007, Shukaku, a company owned by a senator of the Cambodian People's Party, won a 99-year lease to develop the area around the lake. Developers began pumping sand into the lake, and in 2011, a BBC reporter described what was once Phnom Penh's biggest lake as having shrunk to "little more than a puddle". According to Amnesty International, more than 20,000 residents were displaced by the development. In 2011, the World Bank suspended aid to Cambodia until the situation was resolved.
Yorm Bopha was active in protests supporting residents' land rights. In 2012, she led a campaign for the freedom of thirteen women sentenced to prison for their role in one of the protests.
2012 assault conviction
On 28 December 2012, Yorm Bopha was convicted of "intentional violence with aggravating circumstances", following an incident in August of that year in which she allegedly assaulted two taxi drivers. Riot police surrounded the courthouse as she was sentenced, using electric batons to hold back protestors. Yorm Bopha later protested the judgement, saying, "This is injustice in the money-and-dollar society." Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, stated, "I think with this case the court is trying to stop land protests."
Amnesty International called the charges "fabricated", designated her and fellow convicted activist Tim Sakmony as prisoners of conscience, and stated that the two were "being persecuted purely for their work defending the rights of those in their communities who have lost their houses through forced evictions". The World Organisation Against Torture and the International Federation for Human Rights released a joint statement calling for the pair's "immediate and unconditional release and the lift of pending charges, as their detention and judicial harassment seem to merely aim at obstructing their human rights activities and appear to be a result of them exercising their right to freedoms of expression and association".
On March 27, 2013, the Cambodian Supreme Court denied Bopha’s request for bail pending her appeal. In June 2013, a Court of Appeals upheld Bopha's conviction but reduced her sentence to two years. On November 22, 2013, the Supreme Court released Bopha on bail, ordering that her case be further investigated and re-tried.
Personal life
Yorm Bopha is married to fellow activist Lours Sakhorn.
