FLASH INFO

Grassroots activist threatened with deportation arrested in Phnom Penh

Published on 23 February 2015
F T M
Photo provided by Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA)

This afternoon, Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson from local environmental Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Mother Nature, was arrested and forced into a car near the Phnom Penh night market by government authorities only hours after a warning was issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen during a public speech. Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson was arrested shortly after 1 pm and driven in a black car, followed by bodyguards, to the Department of Immigration at around 2.20 pm this afternoon.

Mr. Gonzalez-Davidson has been at the forefront of a campaign by Mother Nature to halt the controversial development of a hydroelectric dam in Areng valley, Koh Kong province. He was denied a visa renewal earlier this month, in what has been a sustained attempt by the government to quash grassroots advocacy and silence dissent.

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