In a press release by the conservation NGO Mother Nature yesterday, the environmental group dismissed last week’s charges brought against founder Alex Gonzalez-Davidson and two other co-founders as “totally without foundation” and said Gonzalez-Davidson will request that the interior minister allow him back into the country to stand trial.

Gonzalez-Davidson, who was deported in February of last year, was charged along with Sok Chantra and Prom Dhammajat as an accomplice to the same alleged crime that saw three of the group’s activists jailed in August 2015 for their anti-sand dredging activities.

“We believe that those who should be facing justice are the sand mining companies and the government officials who are in cahoots with them,” the statement reads.