Phnom Penh: Prime Minister Hun Sen has instructed Minister Keut Rith and relevant legal experts to gather up the gangs that are causing chaos in the region and have been arrested and sent to work on the front lines without further prison education.
On the occasion of presiding over the third meeting with the informal economy unions and the academic staff association at the Koh Pich Convention and Exhibition Center to celebrate the 140th anniversary of International Workers’ Day, May 1, 2026, Prime Minister Hun Sen asked the Minister of Justice and relevant legal experts to think about the gang problem as he observed that there was a recovery after a period of calm.
Samdech Thib Dei Hun Manet said, “I want His Excellency Keut Rith, His Excellency Sar Thet, His Excellency Vong Pisen to study the law for me regarding the gangs. Now we are putting them in prison, and then they come out. Some are reformed, some are not reformed. There is no need to push them to hire them. Let’s think about how to use education to connect them to frontline service. There is no need to use them to shoot guns, but to do trench digging, trench digging, etc. to help the engineering corps.”
In that, the Samdech Thib Dei stated that taking them to serve the nation on the battlefield is education, and this education is better than putting them in prison, which does nothing to benefit the national society.
In addition, Samdech Thib Dei Hun Manet Confirmed again to Mr. Keut Rith, a legal expert with the National Police Commissioner and the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Commander, to study the imposition of 3 months or 6 months depending on the severity of the sentence, so that the same young people, while soldiers are standing in front of the battlefield and facing danger, while the young people in the back row who have the opportunity to be free, roam around and destroy the nation.
