Twelve judges and five prosecutors were verbally “disciplined” yesterday during a meeting of the Supreme Council of Magistracy presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni.

Sam Prachea Manith, spokesman for the council, declined to name the people singled out.

“This is for a small mistake that they forgot in their procedure. It is just administrative discipline,” Meanit said.

Among several position changes announced, Saing Serey was reinstated as a Prey Veng judge after being suspended without pay from the Koh Kong court last March for no publicly stated reason.

In Kong Chit, provincial coordinator for rights group Licadho, welcomed the reinstatement.

“In his profession, he did very well. I did not hear any scandal about him,” Kong Chit said, adding that Serey dropped charges in a case against a land activist.

San Chey, head of social accountability group ANSA-EAP, said the entire exercise was an example of the courts’ lack of transparency, which sows distrust among the populace.

“For improvement, the names and workplace of the [disciplined] judges should be revealed so that they would not do the same mistakes,” he said.