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Until proven guilty, Cambodian citizens accused of a crime have the right to be presumed innocent, under Cambodian and international law. For most charged persons, this should mean being given the chance to avoid pre-trial detention through bail proceedings.

This briefing paper, mainly based on LICADHO’s extensive work in the prison system, demonstrates how rampant under-use of bail proceedings results in excessively long periods of pre-trial detention which have far reaching consequences for the lives of individuals, families and communities. For the purposes of this report, LICADHO defines pre-trial detention as those persons detained who have not yet been to trial.

The impacts of unnecessary pre-trial detention – of up to 22 months prior to trial – cannot be overstated. Imprisonment leads to stigmatisation as well as loss of income and family breakdown in a society where many live in poverty and depend on family ties. In some cases, when sentences are finally handed down, inmates have already been detained for longer than the sentencing period of the crime they were charged with. In others, prisoners are eventually found to be innocent but have been unfairly detained for long periods of time.