00:00Cambodia has sentenced 10 environmental activists to jail for up to eight years for plotting
00:07against the government and insulting the king.
00:11That's according to the founder of the activist group, Mother Nature, and a lawyer on Tuesday.
00:16The verdict comes amid growing concerns about freedom of expression in the country under
00:20Prime Minister Hun Manate.
00:23Five of the defendants were arrested outside the court in capital city Phnom Penh immediately
00:27after the verdict.
00:29Activist supporters dressed in white held placards reading, justice is dead.
00:34Activist Ton Rotter.
00:40The court charged us with plotting to overthrow the government, or insulting the king, etc.,
00:46trying to do whatever to jail us.
00:48That is a big mistake, and not only affects the court system, but it affects the new government
00:54that has young blood, which we hoped would have democracy, respect human rights, freedom.
01:00But on the contrary, it showed us their fierce activity.
01:04Mother Nature has long campaigned against environmental destruction in Cambodia.
01:09The group highlights deforestation, illegal sand mining and corruption in development
01:14projects.
01:15The group's founder, Spanish national Alejandro Gonzalez Davidson, who was sentenced in absentia,
01:22said he was one of three charged with infringing Cambodia's Les Majesties law.
01:26He told Reuters that while the accusations of plotting against the state had not been
01:30clarified in court, three members were arrested after documenting suspected pollution runoff
01:36into a river in the capital in 2021.
01:40The Les Majesties charges relate to an internal Zoom meeting about political cartooning that
01:44was leaked.
01:46New York-based group Human Rights Watch branded the verdict devastating.
01:52The Cambodian government has previously denied that the trial was politically motivated,
01:57saying it did not prosecute critics, only those who commit crimes.
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