16-Year-Old with Autism Convicted over Facebook Posts, Telegram Messages
Published on 1 November 2021
This morning the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced a 16-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder to eight months in prison over content he shared on Facebook and Telegram. The child, the son of a detained political opposition member and an activist, was convicted of incitement and insult of public officials under Articles 494, 495 and 502 of the Criminal Code. He will serve four months and 15 days in prison, with the remainder of the sentence suspended.
The child is due to be released from prison this month but he will remain under probation for two additional years, during which time he will be required to appear before the court whenever summoned; inform the court if he changes address; and obtain permission to leave the country, among other conditions.
The trial hearing was open to the public and this morning monitors were permitted to enter the courtroom in which the child was present. Monitors were then ordered to leave the courtroom before the verdict was read. When leaving the courtroom after the verdict announcement, his mother was escorted out of the court building by officials as she attempted to inform monitors and the media who were waiting outside the courtroom about the verdict.
The boy’s father, Kak Komphear, is a former official with the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) who has been imprisoned since June 2020 on charges of conspiracy and incitement. The boy’s mother, Prum Chantha, has regularly peacefully demonstrated alongside a group of women, often called the “Friday Women”, for the release of her son, husband and other detained former CNRP members.
The boy was arrested in June 2021 before being sent to Phnom Penh’s Correctional Centre 2, where he spent over four months in pre-trial detention. Requests for bail were denied and he was denied access to family member visits for several months, despite the 2016 Law on Juvenile Justice instructing that pre-trial detention of children should be a measure of last resort.
The boy was previously detained and later released in October 2020. In April this year, he required stitches after unknown assailants injured his head with a brick. No one has been held to account for the attack.
