A spokesperson for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s Prosecutor Office has explained the incitement charges levelled against Ny Nak, a prominent social media user and government critic. The case centres around Nak’s allegation that labour minister Heng Sour is involved in profiting from a land concession. 

Nak – who runs the Facebook account Iman-Kh, which has almost 430,000 followers – was placed in pre-trial detention at Prey Sar Correctional Centre 1 on January 6, one day after his arrest. 

He was charged with committing a felony after being sentencing for a misdemeanour, public defamation and incitement to discrimination, in accordance with articles 88, 305, 494 and 496 of the Criminal Code.

The Prosecutor’s Office said they received the case against Nak on December 20 and had launched an immediate investigation. They found that Nak and his unnamed accomplices had posted and shared a “misleading” Facebook post on December 12, alleging that the government had “ceded the land to Heng Sour, probably for him to build 2,000 factories and offices for labour ministry officials because he said [they] work without Saturdays or Sundays”.

According to a court statement, a labour ministry spokesperson had clarified Nak’s allegation, explaining that the “Heng Sour” named in the land concession was another individual, not the labour minister. The ministry called on any media outlet that had published the “misinformation” to issue a correction.

The court noted that although the clarification had been made, Nak and his accomplices continued to share the information another Facebook status saying: “How big were Heng Sour’s accomplishments for the nation that prompted the government to clear forest land for his ownership? RIP Cambodia’s forest.” 

The spokesperson, who was not identified in the court statement, said such allegations affected not only Sour’s reputation but also an attempt to incite public discrimination against the minister and the Kingdom’s leadership alike.

Nak was previously sentenced to 18 months in June 2021 for a social media post regarding the government’s mask wearing mandate at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Rights group LICADHO’s operations director Am Sam Ath saw the legal action against Nak as an act of restricting freedom of expression, as he believed Nak was merely sharing his opinion.

He added that this kind of legal action does not have any benefit for the government, but rather attracts criticism on the status of freedom of speech in Cambodia.

Nak’s wife Sok Sineth, who had visited him at the prison on January 8, cited her husband as saying that he had based his information on foreign-based media and expressed regrets for the mistake he had made by sharing the “false information”.

“I would like Samdech [Hun Sen] and Prime Minister Hun Manet to accept my husband’s apology, set him free and allow him to join the government,” said Sineth.