Nget Khun, also known as Yeay Mommy, pictured outside the Supreme Court on 7 February 2018 at the trial of another activist from the Boeung Kak Lake Community.

The Supreme Court this morning overturned the convictions of two land activists from the Boeung Kak Lake Community. The activists, 83-year-old Nget Khun (also known as Yeay Mommy) and 58-year-old Cheang Leap, had been convicted by two lower courts of making death threats in March 2012.

Members of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak Lake Community faced a prolonged dispute after the government leased the lake to a private company in 2007. Community members were routinely imprisoned and convicted for defending their homes and speaking out against the forced evictions.

The charges related to an incident in which papers printed with death threats against former community member Ly Mom were found scattered outside her home. Ly Mom filed complaints against six Boeung Kak Lake Community members, including Khun and Leap. The six women maintained that they were not responsible for the threats.

Despite Ly Mom dropping the complaint in 2016, the six community members were convicted by the Phnom Penh Capital Court under Article 233 of the Criminal Code on 24 August 2018, and received six-month suspended sentences. Four activists, including Khun and Leap, appealed the judgment to the Phnom Penh Appeal Court, which on 7 September 2023 upheld the lower court’s verdict.

Khun and Leap were the only defendants to appeal the verdict to the Supreme Court, which today dropped the charges against them – almost 12 years after the incident in question occurred.