(From left to right) Mother Nature Movement activists Ly Chandaravuth, Long Kunthea, Yim Leanghy, Thun Ratha, and Phuon Keoraksmey pictured with supporters outside the Phnom Penh Capital Court on 29 May 2024.

The trial of 10 environmental activists from the Mother Nature Movement on charges of plotting and insulting the king began this morning at the Phnom Penh Capital Court. The activists face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The environmental activists include Yim Leanghy, Sun Ratha, and Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, who are charged with insulting the King and plotting under Articles 437-bis and 453 of the Criminal Code. The remaining seven are charged with plotting, and are Thun Ratha, Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoraksmey, Ly Chandaravuth, Binh Piseth, Rai Raksa, and Pork Khoeuy.

Present at the hearing today were Leanghy, Thun Ratha, Chandaravuth, Keoraksmey and Kunthea. All the activists were dressed in mourning outfits of all-white, and after the hearing gathered with supporters and spoke to media in front of the court.

Several of the activists on trial this morning were previously imprisoned for their peaceful environmental activism. Sun Ratha, Leanghy and Chandaravuth were arrested on 16 June 2021 and spent nearly five months in pre-trial detention on the charges they faced this morning. Thun Ratha, Kunthea and Keoraksmey were arrested in September 2020 on separate incitement charges relating to a one-woman march against the in-filling of an urban lake. They spent more than 14 months in prison on those charges, and had the plotting charges they faced this morning filed against them while they were behind bars. Alejandro was charged with plotting in absentia, after his deportation from the country in 2015.

The Mother Nature Movement is an environmental group that focuses on defending and protecting Cambodia’s natural resources. They have raised issues around the filling-in of lakes in Phnom Penh, illegal logging and the destruction of natural resources across the country, and its members have faced repeated judicial harassment and imprisonment. The group was awarded the 2023 Right Livelihood award for their activism, though the members facing charges were prevented by the court from travelling to Stockholm to receive the award in-person.