NGOs call for release of prominent NagaWorld union leader*

Nearly 70 Cambodian civil society organizations have called for the immediate release of a prominent labor union leader arrested three days ago for allegedly violating bail conditions from a prior arrest. 
Authorities arrested Chhim Sithar, a leader of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of the NagaWorld casino complex, at Phnom Penh International Airport on Saturday, for violating bail conditions that allegedly prohibited her from traveling overseas.
She was returning from the International Trade Union Confederation World Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
“We call for her immediate and unconditional release from prison and an end to the judicial harassment of the union’s leader and members,” said a statement issued by the organizations on Monday.
Police first arrested Chhim Sithar in December 2021 on charges of inciting social chaos for leading a massive strike at the NagaWorld Hotel and Entertainment Complex, one of the world’s most profitable gambling centers, in the center of Phnom Penh.
Thousands of NagaWorld employees walked off their jobs in mid-December 2021, demanding higher wages and the reinstatement of eight jailed union leaders and nearly 370 others they said were unjustly fired from the casino, which is owned by Malaysian billionaire Tan Sri Chen Lip Keong. 
At the time, Cambodian authorities said the strike was illegal and alleged that foreign donor countries supported it as a plot to topple the government. 
Phnom Penh City Hall later ordered the workers to stop the strike to protect against the spread of the coronavirus.
Authorities jailed her and other union leaders for two months but released them on bail the following March.
Chhim Sithar and her two lawyers provided by the Cambodian human rights group Licadho maintain that the court did not inform them of any bail conditions. They requested a review of the file to see if it included bail conditions, but the court denied the request in violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to the statement by the NGOs.
Cambodian immigration allowed the labor union leader to leave the country earlier this month, the statement noted.
Am Sam Ath, Licadho’s director general, told RFA that the second arrest was an attempt to intimidate the union and force workers not to strike. 
“The NGOs observed that Chhim Sithar didn’t breach any law according to the charges,” he said.  “She wasn"t aware of any court supervision order imposed on her.”
In response to the call by the civil society organizations, Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued a statement Tuesday saying Chhim Sithar left Cambodia without the investigating judge’s approval, thereby violating the court’s supervision order.
Australian MP Julian Hill, who met with Chhim Sithar in Melbourne, said he was shocked by her latest arrest, saying the accusation that she had breached her bail conditions was nonsense because no one informed her of them.
“This is outrageous,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Another incident of Hun Sen’s gangster regime attacking union leaders for doing their job.”
Hill called on the Cambodian government to release her immediately and the NagaWorld casino to resolve the dispute sensibly.
Ath Thun, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said the matter was a labor dispute and that authorities should not use the judiciary to repeatedly arrest her. “The authorities should not arrest her unless they have a definite restriction on her leaving the country,” he said.
“The government should be transparent and resolve this problem,” he added.
Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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