Crime and law enforcement

The wife of a jailed Polish citizen of Lao heritage has asked Poland’s justice ministry to request the Lao government to transfer her husband from a detention center in the Southwestern Asian nation to one in his European home country. Barbara Paklak-Thammavong told RFA’s Laos Service ...

Fishermen who had been enslaved and abused onboard illicit trawlers plying far-flung Indonesian islands will soon be headed back to the nation where they were held captive for up to a decade. This time they’re after justice, and will take part in a lawsuit against one ...

A prominent Areng Valley activist joined three other environmentalists in jail on 7 October in Koh Kong after being questioned at the provincial court about alleged “forest crimes”. Ven Vorn, 36, a community representative and commune councillor with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, was arrested at the ...

Authorities in Laos are continuing their investigations into illicit smuggling after dried cannabis weighing some 15 kg bound for Europe via parcel mail was identified by Lao Customs officials at Wattay International Airport in capital Vientiane, local media reported on 7 October. Keep reading ...

More than 200 fishing trawlers from Trat province are now docking and unloading their catches in Cambodia’s adjoining Koh Kong province to evade the strict regulations being enforced against unregistered vessels and fishing equipment in Thailand. Keep reading ...

Police are preparing a comprehensive security blanket in advance of the 8 November election. Training is about to begin for more than 40,000 special police officers drafted nationwide to supplement the regular force during elections, while there is also a provision for calling the military ...

Two Vietnamese teenagers were arrested in Kandal province on 2 October after being found illegally transporting 44 endangered tortoises, which they reportedly intended to smuggle into Vietnam for sale. Keep reading ...

Southeast Asian ministers in charge of security held talks with their Japanese counterpart on 1 October in a bid to enhance cooperation in tackling terrorism and cybercrime. Eriko Yamatani, a cabinet minister and also the chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission, led a delegation for the ...

Nearly 2,000 people have been deported from Cambodia – the vast majority of them Vietnamese – in the first nine months of 2015, according to new government figures. From January through September, 1,919 people were expelled from the Kingdom, a report issued by the General Department ...

Hackers have stepped up their attacks on government organizations and companies in Southeast Asia and made the region one of the most targeted in the world amid heightened regional tensions, according to security provider FireEye. Keep reading ...