Case History: Chhay Thy
On 2 February 2015, human rights defender Mr Chhay Thy was publicly threatened with legal action by a general of the Cambodian army. The next day, the human rights defender received a threat from a Facebook account allegedly controlled by a senior provincial official.
Chhay Thy is the Provincial Coordinator of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC). The organisation has reported on the situation of members of the Montagnard ethnic minority who fled from Vietnam following a police crackdown in response to demonstrations by Montagnards on 10 and 11 April 2014 demanding religious freedom, independence, and the return of ancestral lands. The Cambodian government has allowed a number of Montagnards in Cambodia to seek asylum in the country, but, reportedly, more remain in hiding as the Cambodian authorities have deported a number of Montagnards to Vietnam.
On 2 February 2015, human rights defender Mr Chhay Thy was publicly threatened with legal action by a general of the Cambodian army. The next day, the human rights defender received a threat from a Facebook account allegedly controlled by a senior provincial official.
In an interview with news agency Voice of America, General Khieu Sopheak denied that a Vietnamese Montagnard minority family arrested in O’Yadav district in Ratanakkiri province on 1 February 2015, and later deported, were asylum-seekers, as claimed by ADHOC. The general stated that they were illegal immigrants, and threatened to sue Chhay Thy if the human rights defender did not retract ADHOC's statements. Further threats were made on 3 February 2015 through Facebook, inviting ISIS militants to “cut off” Chhay Thy’s tongue.
