OUR GROUPS “LETTERS OF CONCERN” HELPED RELEASE YORM BOPHA OF CAMBODIA
Yorm Bopha
Yorm Bopha was arrested in September 2012, when she was accused of planning an assault on two men.
On December 27, 2012, she was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, after an unfair trial. According to an Amnesty International Report, there is no evidence links Yorm Bopha to the crime.
The Cambodian government has tried to silence human rights defender Yorm Bopha with fabricated charges as a result of her peaceful activism defending rights of the Boeung Kak Lake community who have lost their houses through forced evictions.
On June 2013, Cambodia’s Appeal Court upheld Yorm Bopha’s conviction with one year of her three-year sentence suspended.
She was not due for release until September 2014. But Cambodia’s Supreme Court ordered the Appeal Court to investigate and reconsider her case for retrial after authorities received nearly 253,000 letters from Amnesty supporters. To date there has been no movement towards a retrial.
Ms. Bopha writes:
“..I thank all of the people who devoted their time to write to the government. I am very happy to know that we are not alone…”
The Global Importune letter signing group began sending letters of concern on behalf of Yorm Bopha to officials in the government Cambodia sometime around June 2013.
She was RELEASED on November 22, 2013
