Environmental campaigner convicted of forestry crime
A prominent anti-dam activist in Cambodia’s Koh Kong province who has been jailed since October was convicted on 3 March of illegal logging and given a suspended prison sentence, allowing him to walk free but leaving the shadow of a criminal conviction hanging over him.
The decision marked the first conviction of an activist affiliated with the group Mother Nature, which has been a thorn in the side of the government for the past two years due to its provocative and eye-catching protests against the impending construction of a hydropower dam in Koh Kong’s Areng Valley.
