RFA
A Spanish environmentalist who led a campaign against a controversial dam project on Tuesday accused Cambodia’s courts of violating national and international law because judicial authorities plan to hold a case against him in absentia while he is prevented by the government from re-entering the country to stand trial.
Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the Khmer-speaking former director of the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, was deported from the Southeast Asian nation in February 2015 following the government’s refusal to renew his visa.
Opposition groups and local NGOs said Gonzalez-Davidson was expelled for to prevent him from organizing further opposition to the planned Chhay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province. The U.S. $400-million China-led project backed by a ruling Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker would have forced hundreds of ethnic minority families off of their ancestral land and destroyed the habitats of endangered animals, they said.