Lay Socheat was arrested on January 21, 2025, by police in Phnom Penh after sharing a video that allegedly showed a man being tortured in a cyber-scam center in the capital city’s Dangkor district, news reports said.
Socheat, a journalist and editor with the local independent Cambodia Star Daily News 24/24 news site, faces charges of incitement under Article 495 of the criminal code. The charge carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
As of June, Socheat was being held awaiting trial at Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar Prison, also known as Correctional Center 1, according to report from the Phom Penh-based CamboJA News and the local rights group Lichado, whose representative spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals.
Phnom Penh police issued a statement accusing the journalist of spreading false information that caused social chaos, jeopardized national security, and affected the dignity of national leaders.
Journalists who have reported on Cambodia’s politically sensitive criminal cyber-scam centers — where workers are often trafficked, held by force, and forced to defraud their online victims — have faced threats and reprisals, according to multiple news stories and CPJ reporting.
Socheat and fellow journalist Duong Akhara, who was also detained on January 21 on the same charge, apologized for publishing the video, according to S.A. TVHD Online, which posted copies of their apology letters to Prime Minister Hun Manet on its Facebook page.
Cambodia’s Ministry of Information did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on Socheat’s arrest and legal status in detention in August.