General Ke Kim Yan, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, on Tuesday, during the ceremony of the anti-drug campaign at the Ministry of Interior, said that the Cambodian court did not appropriately follow the Law on Drug Control due to the fact that no drug offender is sentenced to life in prison as prescribed in the law.
"According to the law, no sentence can be lightened, but heavy sentence or offence with aggravation was not very well implemented, especially for rich people, no one was sentenced to life in prison, only to 10 years, 15 years or less than 20 years behind bars. The law was clearly written, no sentence can be lightened in the law," said Gen. Kim Yan as reported by Fresh News.
He added that the law was really strict, but the court was not strict. There was no death penalty in Cambodia, however life in prison was not easy. No drug offender with 5 kilograms, 4 kilograms, or 3 kilograms of drug was sentenced to life in prison.
"No big drug dealer in the country was sentenced to life in prison, only 3 years behind bars," added Gen. Kim Yan as reported by Fresh News.
Gen. Kim Yan also said that if the court was closely following the law, concerning big drug offenders, the court must confiscate all their assets after they were found to be guilty, not just the evidence as the court used to do.
On the other hand, according to the US's Human Rights Reports 2016, the Cambodian court was also being accused for being politicized and ineffective. Although some government officials were charged for committing abuses, including those who involved in corruption case, but impunity was still a big problem in Cambodia.
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