Four garment workers swept up in the first wave of arrests during mass strikes in Bavet last month were granted bail yesterday, but have not yet been freed as the decision was appealed by the provincial court’s prosecutor, a court official said yesterday.

The factory employees were charged on December 18 with allegedly damaging a fire truck and injuring police during a two-week minimum wage strike that drew more than 30,000 workers from factories in the Svay Rieng border town.

The four men are Van Vicheat, 24, Kong Phros, 27, Pal Dinmalyda, 28, and Kheng Sokha, 31.

Tep Phalla, an administrator at Svay Rieng Provincial Court, said late last night that the investigating judge had decided yesterday to release the workers on bail, but this was held up by the appeal.

This was reiterated by Hen Bun, the men’s lawyer. “We hope that the appeal court will make the decision like the investigator did, to release them on bail,” she said.

Neither the court administrator nor Bun could confirm why bail was appealed, and provincial prosecutor Kong Chankhemrith declined to comment.