Law and judiciary

Southeast Asia is witnessing an explosion of organised crime thanks to increasing economic integration, according to a new United Nations report. The illegal trafficking of people, drugs, counterfeit goods and wildlife is already estimated to exceed US$100 billion a year – more than the GDP of ...

Campaigning to vote for or against the charter draft is legal but any efforts to call for a boycott of the referendum would be illegal, Election Commission (EC) member Somchai Srisuthiyakorn said on 25 February. Keep reading ...

Myanmar hackers say they have attacked Thai government websites since early January and stolen data, part of a long-running, broader campaign against those critical of Myanmar’s government. The Blink Hacker Group said in Facebook posts and in an email interview that its attacks were in retaliation for ...

Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has ordered police in 27 cities and provinces to join an investigation into a fraudulent multi-level marketing company that managed to scam more than 60,000 people.   Colonel Tran Quang Huy said the ministry had initially identified about 45,000 victims, but the ...

Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng and ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak on 23 February took a yearly meeting on national crime rates as an opportunity to lavish praise on the Kingdom’s security forces for preventing protests and arresting people on what are widely considered political grounds. Delivering opening ...

Vientiane traffic police have begun to issue fines to sand, gravel and soil trucks that are leaving trails of dirt and dust through the city. Director of the Vientiane Traffic Police Department, Lieutenant Colonel Youtthaphong Souvannasing, told Vientiane Times on 22 February that if police at traffic ...

In the midst of a stand-off with local authorities, anti-drug campaign group Pat Ja San is lobbying the National League for Democracy to address the issue of opium poppy cultivation in parliament. The Christian drug-fighting vigilantes – notorious for their hardline tactics – have been encamped ...

Five foreigners accused of multiple offences of fraud involving the use of fake bank cards or electronic equipment to withdraw cash can be tried together, Yangon Region’s High Court has decided. The decision means that the cases of a British man and four Indian citizens will ...

A reporter for local television station MSJ TV was briefly de­tained and questioned by police on 20 February for allegedly inciting residents who are facing eviction from their riverside homes in Kom­pong Chhnang City, a journalist and officials said on 21 February. Ngunly Theara, a news reader ...

Refugees from fighting between two ethnic armed groups in northern Shan State are still flowing into the government-controlled town of Kyaukme amid reports that the Tatmadaw is stepping up its presence in the conflict zone. Relief workers are sending vehicles to war-torn villages to help civilians – ...