An award-winning investigative journalist who has reported on human trafficking and crypto scam centers in Cambodia was arrested by the country’s state military police on Monday.
Authorities charged Mech Dara with “incitement to disturb social security” over a series of social media posts, according to the local news outlet CamboJA. He was subsequently placed in pre-trial detention at Kandal provincial prison.
Dara was reportedly stopped at a toll booth by six police cars and arrested under a warrant while traveling with his family. At the time, his charges were unknown.
On September 29, Dara shared images of a pagoda in Ba Phnom that was damaged by quarry work. Local authorities reportedly claimed the posts were inciting “social disorder” while a “government-aligned” news outlet called his posts “fake news.” The photos are now deleted.
Google Maps street view of the steps leading to the pagoda pictured by Dara.
Read more: Thousands enslaved in Cambodia to run fake ICOs and scams
Dara was able to inform the human rights group Licadho of his arrest before his phone was confiscated. Licadho’s co-director Naly Pilorge said, “Dara must be freed so he can continue his work to shed light on issues like human trafficking, forced labor, and corruption.”
Last year the US Secretary of State presented Mech Dara with a Hero Award for his coverage of scam compounds in the region (in 2022 it was reported that the Cambodia scam industry enslaved up to 100,000 migrant workers).
More recently, the US imposed sanctions on a Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat this month “for their role in serious human rights abuses related to the treatment of workers subjected to forced labor in online investment scam operations.”
