Former Radio Free Asia reporters Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin are released on bail in August 2018 after nine months in prison.

Former Radio Free Asia (RFA) reporters Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin remain locked in a seemingly endless legal struggle after the Appeal Court this morning rejected a complaint challenging the re-investigation into politically motivated espionage charges against the two journalists.

No explanation was given for the decision, and a written justification outlining the court’s reasoning will only be available to the defence team on request. No timeframe or trial date has yet been set for the re-investigation.

This morning’s verdict follows on from a Phnom Penh Municipal Court decision last October to further investigate allegations that the two reporters had "supplied a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defence”. A previous challenge lodged by the two journalists against the re-investigation into charges under Articles 38 and 39 of the human trafficking law was also rejected in late December 2019.

Chhin and Sothearin were arrested in November 2017 and spent more than nine months in pre-trial detention before being granted bail. Both men worked for RFA prior to the outlet shuttering its Phnom Penh bureau as a result of a renewed government assault on independent media outlets that saw RFA’s FM radio broadcasts silenced. Sothearin has two young children; Chhin, a three-year-old daughter and grandchildren.

Both former reporters have rejected the authorities’ accusations, and local and international rights groups and press freedom advocates have repeatedly called for the immediate dropping of all charges against the former journalists.