Crime and law enforcement

World famous for its endless swarms of motorcycles, Vietnam is considering banning bikes in the capital over fears its leafy streets will become overrun as the population swells and its middle class buys up cars in record numbers. Hanoi is forecast to have seven million motorcycles ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court in Cambodia decided to suspend a year and a half sentence handed down to three activists from environmental NGO Mother Nature who have been in prison since last August – longer than the legal limit for pre-trial detention. The three ...

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is concentrating its’ efforts on a campaign of the law on preventing and combating cyber crime to government officials. Cyber crime is any computer-related offence causing damages to the state, persons, legal entities, organisations, and overall society in accordance with ...

With more than 1,000 human-trafficking cases pending in the courts including a large number of Myanmar victims, Thailand has promised to speed up the legal process, the Department of Special Investigation deputy chief Pol Colonel Songsak Raksaksakul said on 14 June. Songsak met on 14 June with ...

Lack of legal assistance from foreign countries means the fight against wildlife crime is still very tough. This is according to Nguyễn Duy Giảng, head of the Department for Prosecution and Supervision over Criminal Cases, under the Supreme People’s Procuracy of Việt Nam at press conference ...

As Cambodia moves towards opening its first privately run prison, international experts have warned the government may have misunderstood the concept and cautioned that privatisation likely isn’t the best way to tackle chronic overcrowding in prisons. Keep reading ...

The ongoing nationwide crackdown on illegal logging in Cambodia has produced another pair of high-profile busts touted by the national military police. On 9 March, alleged smugglers in Stung Treng were busted attempting to sneak three tractor-loads of luxury wood into Laos. The day before, some 10,000 cubic ...

Nearly 100,000 people have signed a petition organised by nationalist groups against the death penalty verdict given to two Rakhine State natives. Ko Zaw Linn and Ko Wai Phyo were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two British backpackers in Thailand in 2014. The ...

Cambodia’s National Police chief had said he wants to increase female recruitment into the force this year, in part to reduce “inappropriate” clashes between male police and female protesters, though observers were sceptical that simply hiring more women would solve endemic problems in the force. In ...

Far from the bustle of booming Chiang Mai, pockets of poppies are still being cultivated in the remote hills of this northern province, defying years of intensive efforts to eradicate them. Periodically, Thailand’s drug enforcement officials backed by foreign powers sweep through the area, but ...