By Luke Hunt
Phnom Penh: Australian missionary Martin Chan hopes Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will intervene to resolve charges of "criminal fraud" that have led to a three-month stint behind bars.
Access to Hun Sen was offered after Chan won the support of Sok Sovann Vathana Sabung, a key member of the Supreme Consultation Forum (SCF) and president of the Khmer Rise Party (KRP).
Australian missionary Martin Chan, with his wife Deborah Kim, is released on bail in Phnom Penh, Cambodia earlier this month.Credit: AAP
"I hope that Hun Sen or his cabinet will take a look at this case and see if there's anything unusual," 49-year-old Chan said.
His case has won widespread support among Khmers and is being closely watched by NGOs, charities and business groups concerned with Cambodia's court system.
According to the World Justice Project, Cambodia has the worst civil justice system in the region and is ranked second lowest in an index of 113 countries on issues ranging from whether justice is free of discrimination, improper government influence and is effectively enforced.
Chan had worked as a volunteer for the Christian charity His International Services, alongside director Jung Young-Kim from South Korea.
The charity contracted local company PHV Construction to build a school for 1000 bilingual students.
But the multimillion-dollar project was abandoned in 2016 amid a bitter dispute that became a test case for the newly formed National Commercial Arbitration Centre.
Chan and Young-Kim, who has since left the country, and their charity were cleared of wrongdoing.
But the local criminal court in Kandal, in the country's southeast where the school was to be built, has not acknowledge findings by the arbitration centre.
Chan was subsequently arrested while boarding a flight to Hong Kong and charged under the criminal code in the Kandal Provincial Court where bail was denied twice before he won release on his third attempt in the Phnom Penh Appeals Court.
Vathana Sabung told the Phnom Penh Post he did not understand why a prosecutor would initiate criminal charges in a commercial dispute after civil arbitration had already cleared Chan.
"I do not believe the prosecutor followed the law properly," he said, adding a detailed report would be sent to Hun Sen later this week.
The SCF is a prudent route into the offices of Hun Sen, an authoritarian leader who has had absolute rule over this country since the 2018 elections when the main opposition party was banned and his Cambodian People's Party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly.
He then established the SCF as a means of providing public feedback on government initiated laws and bodies while improving dialogue among the remaining political parties, including the KRP.
Chan faces up to three years behind bars if convicted, a prospect he dreads after sharing a cramped cell with another 95 inmates for three months when bail was denied.
"I feared I would be kept there forever," he said. "This is a civil case, not a criminal case."
Chan, however, remains optimistic and recently opened an optometry shop with his wife Deborah Kim in Phnom Penh.
AAP