A Glimpse into the Cambodian Justice System

Last week, we had avery exciting opportunity to observe a trial here in Cambodia. We can't talk too much about the specifics, but the trial was against the owner and managers of a brothel that kept a number of underage girls.

Our adventure started with a 7 hour bus ride to the province where the trial was located. When you take a bus in Cambodia, you have two options - ""normal" bus for about 5 bucks, or "limo" bus (complete with bathroom, snacks, and movies/karaoke) for about $10. We opted for the limo bus, as 7 hours sounded like a really long time to go without a bathroom! We arrived and spent some time getting to know the other organizations that were involved with the case. We are consistenly impressed and inspired by some of the amazing people here in Cambodia working for the rights of children!

The day of the trial, we were supposed to get started at 7:30. The judges showed up at about 9. In Cambodia, a criminal court has three judges, a prosecutor, a defense attorney, and another attorney on behalf of the organization supporting the trial. The defendants are then questioned in a pretty open format by all of the above, with witness testimony thrown in. At least in this case, there wasn't a jury. It was a long, hot day (about 40c, or 105ish), and the trial was all in Khmer, so we had to get updates through a translator. The trial lasted three days in all, although we were only able to observe the first two.

One of the things that stood out to us was the lack of consequence for lying before the court. Throughout the trial, it became obvious that each of the three defendants had consistently lied in their sworn tatements and testimony through inconsistencies in their statements as well as conflicts with a number of witnesses. We are still waiting to hear the verdict, and we appreciated the opportunity to be able to observe such an interesting part of the anti-trafficking efforts here in Cambodia. We were also encouraged to see the justice system in action, and are excited to see it develop further into an institution that consistently and fairly serves the needs of all Cambodians.