Vanny has campaigned against the evictions of thousands of residents from land in Phnom Penh to make way for a luxury development

By Alisa Tang and Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Feb 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Even before a Cambodian judge sentenced land rights activist Tep Vanny to jail, her fellow campaigners said her fate had already been sealed.

Vanny - who fought the evictions of thousands of residents from lakeside land in the capital Phnom Penh to make way for a luxury real estate project - was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Thursday for her role in a protest outside Prime Minister Hun Sen's residence in 2013.

She was found guilty of inciting violence and assaulting security guards while trying to deliver a petition to Hun Sen on the land dispute.

The conviction came in the face of eyewitness testimony that neither Vanny or other protesters had committed acts of violence and was criticised by campaigners as another step in a crackdown on dissent in the Southeast Asian nation.

"The courts do not use their conscience. They just wait for orders from powerful men," Vanny, a mother of two in her mid-30s, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation during a recess before her verdict.

"It's easy to use the court. They are using my case to intimidate other people ... and scare others to not protest."

Land grabs and forced evictions are a major problem in Cambodia, with thousands of families driven from farmland or urban areas to make way for real estate developments or mining and agricultural projects.

At the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday, three women protesters testified on Vanny's behalf, saying guards had beaten non-violent protesters. Judge Long Kesphirum asked: "Then why were the guards injured?"

The three security guards suing her did not testify. As a clerk read their near-identical statements about Vanny urging protesters to violence, she held her palms together in prayer on top of her head and sobbed, shoulders shaking.

Cambodia government spokesman Phay Siphan rejected the accusation that the government was using the judiciary to hound opponents.

"What the judiciary has done is based on facts and legal grounds, not on politics," Siphan said. "The allegations are just a set up to cause confusion that everything in Cambodia is under the control of Prime Minister Hun Sen."

LAND GRABS

Home to 15 million people, impoverished Cambodia has a long history of disputes over land rights, many dating back to the 1970s when the Khmer Rouge regime destroyed property records.

Between 2000 and 2014, about 770,000 Cambodians - more than 6 percent of the population - were affected by land conflicts, according to charges presented by human rights lawyers at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

In a report last year, the non-profit Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (LICADHO) said the lack of a publicly available land register detailing state land boundaries meant authorities could confiscate land, claiming that the affected families are living on state property.

Communities that protest their loss of land come up against authorities and corporations who respond with intimidation, violence and judicial persecution, LICADHO said in the report.

Vanny is the most prominent activist from Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak area, which was once a large, scenic lake but has now been filled in to make way for construction.

The three men who sued her are from the Daun Penh district security unit, which has a reputation for violence, according to local media.

In their statements, one guard, Hor Hoeun, said he was hit on the head by a protester's loudspeaker, while another, Uk Rotana, said he was struck by a 50-year-old woman holding a bag. The third witness claimed to have found a bag with rocks inside.

The men came to the courthouse ahead of the hearing but did not enter the courtroom. They declined to be interviewed, letting their unit chief, Kim Vutha, speak for them.

"We did not intend to use violence," Vutha said, defending his unit against news reports, witness accounts and video footage showing them beating protesters. "The video is shot from an angle that makes us look bad."

"KANGAROO COURT"

In the trial, defence witness Bo Chhorvy described the guards breaking the arm of one protester and knocking out three teeth of another. The protesters had only lotus flowers and loudspeakers, she told the court.

"We did not have weapons. They had shields, batons, guns - how could we commit violence upon them?" she asked.

"According to the documents, the guards were injured," the judge Kesphirum responded.

Vanny's lawyer Ham Sunrith said the only person the guards accused of violence in their statements was a 50-year-old woman.

"They bring no witnesses, and they point at a third person, who is not my client," Sunrith said. "The person who committed the crime is not here in the court."

Activists slammed the verdict.

"The judge really presided over a kangaroo court that showed no real evidence is required for a conviction," Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"This verdict shows once again that there is no justice in Cambodia for local rights activists struggling to defend their land and communities from rapacious development activities by Prime Minister Hun Sen and his cronies," Robertson said.

Kingsley Abbott, senior international legal advisor at the International Commission of Jurists, said the fact the guards were not called to be cross-examined by the defence appeared to violate Vanny's right to a fair trial.

"The verdict is part of an escalating and systematic strategy to legally harass human rights defenders and political opponents into silence," Abbott said.

A court spokesman said the court acts independently and fairly.

SUPPORTERS

As the judge finished reading the verdict, Vanny and her supporters in court erupted into protest, shouting "injustice!"

Guards surrounded Vanny and rushed her out of the courtroom, and security guards wearing bulletproof vests prevented the witnesses and protesters from following her.

Outside the court on a traffic-clogged street, about 60 protesters were surrounded by dozens of security guards wearing helmets and carrying shields.

As a sedan carrying Vanny sped away from the courthouse, the witness Chhorvy ran after the car.

"The court is corrupt," Chhorvy screamed, as she fell to her knees at the gate of the court and cried.

Later on Thursday, videos were shared on social media of guards kicking and manhandling female protesters laying on the street in front of the courthouse.

(Reporting by Alisa Tang @alisatang and Prak Chan Thul, editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)

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