Two journalists from the Cambodia Daily newspaper have been called to appear in the shooting case of activist Chut Wutty last month.
Chut Wutty had been escorting the two journalists, Cambodian Phorn Bopha and Canadian Olesia Plokhii, to investigate illegal logging in a remote part of the province when he was shot in an argument with military police.
In an account published in the English-language daily, the reporters said they had not witnessed the shooting directly. Authorities are holding one man, Rann Boroth, who they say accidentally killed military policeman In Ratana when he tried to stop him from killing Chut Wutty.
Cambodia Daily editor-in-chief Kevin Doyle declined to comment Tuesday. Rights activists have said the governmental investigative committee did not look deeply into the killing.
Chut Wutty had been a prominent environmental activist whose work to stop illegal logging and deforestation earned him powerful enemies in the lucrative, illicit industry.
Neang Boratino, a Koh Kong investigator with the rights group Adhoc, said the court had summoned the journalists “because they are key witnesses of the killings of Chut Wutty and In Ratana.”