A TOTAL of 145 people are being detained in prisons across the country after their arrests in connection with land disputes since 2008, according to statistics released yesterday by a local rights group.
“In cases related to land disputes, the courts always make up unlawful, fake charges so they can accuse or arrest villagers without any evidence,” said Ouch Leng, a land programme officer for the local rights group Adhoc, which compiled the statistics.
“When villagers file a complaint against a company that is illegally clearing their land, there is no response from the court, but when a private company or influential official files a complaint, the court will arrest villagers and send them to prison,” he added.
According to figures released by Adhoc yesterday, a total of 218 people have been accused of crimes relating to land disputes so far in 2010, 114 of whom were arrested. Of these, 47 remain in detention.
Ouch Leng also said that 60 of those arrested in 2008, as well as 37 from 2009, remained in prison. He said that he did not know the number of people who had been incarcerated in similar cases prior to 2008.
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