An award-winning journalist known for his reporting on human trafficking in the cyberscam industry has been arrested, police said.
Mech Dara (pic) was last year presented with a Hero Award, which recognises efforts against human trafficking, by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his investigations into exploitation at online scam compounds in Cambodia.
Authorities made the arrest on Monday after stopping a car carrying Dara and his family from Sihanoukville – a coastal city where many suspected scam operations take place – to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA) said in a statement.
Military police spokesman Eng Hy confirmed the arrest but refused to say where Dara was being held or which court he would be sent to.
“We executed the warrant from a prosecutor. As for the charges, we cannot say now. His whereabouts, I don’t know,” he said.
Dara, whose work has appeared in various international news outlets, sent a message about his arrest to LICADHO, a human rights NGO, just before his phone was seized by military police.
A day before his arrest, Dara had posted an image on his social media platforms that purportedly showed a tourist site demolished to make way for a quarry, according to CamboJA.
Local authorities labelled the now-deleted images “fake news” and called for Dara to face punishment for their publication. — AFP
