‘Who Killed Chea Vichea’

Years in the making, the feature-length film by movie-maker Bradley Cox is nearly finished. As VOA reports:

“Who Killed Chea Vichea?” includes interviews with police officers, judges, senior politicians in the ruling and opposition parties and rights and civic groups. It was filmed mainly in Cambodia, with other scenes in France, Holland, Thailand, Belgium and the US.

It will be shown on television in the US, as well as in Europe and Asia, but the filmmakers are not sure whether it will appear in Cambodia.

“Who Killed Chea Vichea?” will not paint a flattering picture of the Cambodian government, who, at best, allowed Chea Vichea’s murderers to escape due to gross incompetence. The film has absolutely zero chance of being aired on local television. This is certain.

Chea Vichea ‘killers’ released

Believe it.

The Cambodian Supreme Court released the two men convicted of assassinating outspoken union leader Chea Vichea — Born Samnang, 24, and Sok Sam Oeun, 36 — and sent their case back to the Court of Appeal for further investigation pending a retrial, citing contradictory evidence in the prior trials.

[...]

The executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, Sok Sam Oeun (no relation to the defendant) was stunned.

“I feel strange and surprised, because I never trusted the independence of the Supreme Court. I hope this means the judiciary in Cambodia is improving” he said.

Suon Seth, the executive secretary of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, told the Post, “This is a day that Cambodians can be proud of the court”.

AFP and AP have more.

Remembering Chea Vichea

Today marks the four-year anniversary of the murder of Free Trade Union leader Chea Vichea, who was shot three times — twice in the body, once in the head — on the morning of January 22, 2004, as he read the Cambodia Daily.

At the time, human rights groups called the assassination politically motivated. The U.S. embassy called it “cowardly. Tens of thousands of mourners marched through the streets of Phnom Penh in a somber farewell parade.

The two men convicted for the murder, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, are widely believed to be innocent, framed by the Cambodian authorities. The trial of the two men was the subject of a 2007 video documentary by American filmmaker Bradley Cox titled The Plastic Killers. The murder and trial is also the subject of a forthcoming film by Cox and former Cambodia Daily reporter Rich Garella, titled Who Killed Chea Vichea?