Mother Nature activists Phuon Keoraksmey and Long Kunthea arrive at Phnom Penh Municipal Court on March 31, 2021.

Three jailed Mother Nature environmental activists who were arrested in September 2020 and convicted in May 2021 on charges of incitement have now been charged with plotting by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in relation to a case involving four fellow activists from June 2021.

Thun Ratha, Phuon Keoraksmey and Long Kunthea were convicted on an incitement charge and sentenced to between 18 and 20 months and are currently in prison. They were questioned by an investigating judge this week in relation to plotting charges and face up to ten years in prison if convicted. The lawyers who previously represented them were not made aware of their transfer from prison for questioning and were not present during the interviews.

Plotting charges were filed in June 2021 against four Mother Nature activists – Sun Ratha, Ly Chandaravuth, Yim Leanghy and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson - as well as the additional charge of insulting the king. Spanish national Gonzalez-Davidson was charged in absentia, while the three activists were arrested and are currently in pre-trial detention. The activists face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The recent questioning of Ratha, Keoraksmey and Kunthea came almost a year after they were arrested in September 2020 for planning a one-woman march to advocate against the filling-in and development of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tamok lake. The May convictions of these three activists, alongside Gonzalez-Davidson and a fifth activist, Chea Kunthin, both convicted in absentia, were made despite their trial lacking evidence of incitement.