where intelligence agencies are pulling the strings, were organized crime rules. were conglomerates make their own laws? shed light on the opaque worlds who's behind the benefits and why are they a threat to whistle o peak wolf? this week on d, w i, this is d, w. 's asia coming up to day jostens of opposition activists convicted of treason in cambodia. the us and rights groups condemned the guilty verdicts as politically motivated, designed to cement, to hold on power of cambodia as well for terry and leda will speak to human rights watch shortly. clos,

carry lamb gives her final press conference as leader of hong kong will look back at her complicated, controversial legacy. ah, i'm jared raid. welcome. thanks for joining us. it's being cold. the death of cambodia is democracy. a court in the capital opened on pan has jailed dozens of opposition figures they were convicted of conspiring to commit treason rights groups. id entire process was a sham accusing. long time leader who insane of using the mass trial to crack down on descent and hold on to power in the trial aimed at suppressing dissenting voices . terry sang, one of the accused made it clear she had come to defend liberty. i feel you with me

across the road in a court room sang and 60 other dissidence. many of them already in exile were being tried for treason the quarter ledgers. they helped plot the return of the leader of the band, cambodia, national rescue party. once the ruling party is main rival i a lady, boy that she am a verdict that will be announced that morning we will be guilty wording. i am ready and prepared to go to the notorious campbell in prison. for my political opinions, for my belief, i am, i believe in democracy. as the verdict was announced, sayings predictions borne out. she was found guilty and sentenced to 6 years in prison. others received sentences of 5 to 8 years. shortly afterwards she was arrested and bundled into

a police car scuffles interrupted between her supporters and police. ah cambodian court, so widely believed to be under the influence of prime minister whom sen seen here at local elections just over a week ago. he is been leading cambodia for 37 years human rights group say with increasingly repressive methods. sen has effectively turn cambodia into a one party state by arresting and prosecuting his critics. this trial appears to be his latest attempt to stamp out on the remaining opposition. we can go now to bank hawk and speak to phil robinson, the deputy director of the asia division of human rights watch. feel welcome to d. w. news asia. you've spoken out very thoughtfully on the conviction of these opposition. party members in cambodia on twitter to day you called it an outrageous

violation of rights. could you run through exactly what you mean? while these people have been hit with trumped up charges and basically dragged in front of a court that is not independent is a kangaroo court that does the bidding of the ruling party in the prime minister of cambodia. and what we're seeing is no real evidence produced at these trials to prove the cases of incitement, ah, or conspiracy that these people are being accused and have now been convicted of again, it is just more of the same from cambodia. it's a single party state that is using unfair laws and an unjust court to go after the opposition and put them away for long prison terms. it is again an action by the cambodian government to try to wipe out what remains of the political opposition and further narrow our political space in the country. now the u. s.

cambodian lawyer and campaigner terry saying he was one of those convicted and we just saw her in that pace. she says people in cambodia are living in a dictatorship now. is she right? she's absolutely right. i mean, it's quite clear that they can body and government is becoming more did to tauriel by the day rights abuses are expanding across the country. there is no political opposition elected, political opposition really to speak of. i, you know, once and then his is party and his government are basically control all the levers of power and they're not afraid to go after anyone that makes a criticism on facebook or otherwise says something negative about the government. now you just mentioned prime minister who and then what means to the international community have to pressure him over this and then how likely are they to use them? well, i think we need to see more pressure on trade with cambodia. the european union has

an existing everything but arms agreement with cambodia and 20 percent of that was suspended before the pandemic hit because labor rights violations. i think that the european union should go back to that again and look at taking more frankly. cambodia is in clear violation of the terms of the the va agreement that requires cambodia to follow existing international human rights treaties and labor rights conventions and, and can bodies doing none of it. now, critiques of sin say that over many years he has eliminated his critiques. but specifically, use the pandemic to do this. to. to what extent did he use cove 19 to expand his authoritarian control? while he passed a, an emergency law that is breathtaking, it scope, it has not been invoked, but it essentially allows him to do anything he wants. he invokes that law and he

has used various different provisions of law against people who are criticizing him on facebook, saying that the coven pandemic response. and kennedy was not up to snuff. that, for instance, some of the vaccines that they had received from certain countries were not good in all the criticism that was made online. you know, if you said something on facebook about what the prime minister is doing on cobra, you could expect the next day or 2 that the police wouldn't be knocking on your door. and that is the new reality and cambodia that online surveillance is now matched with real repression on the ground by the police in the military who are completely in whom sense camp. a pretty dim picture, this new reality as you so describe it fill more generally. what's the state of play when it comes to human rights in cambodia? well, we're seeing a civil and political rights being violate on

a regular basis. this is free of expression. freedom of association. it's basically impossible to hold a political protest in cambodia in the capital city of been on been people who are campaigning against a dams against land seizures against other environmental issues that no affect people's basic lives are facing arrests. ah, you know, it's across the board of that, we've seen a real tightening of a repression against anybody who raises criticism against the government in cambodia. that was phil robertson, the deputy director of the asia division of human rights watch. phil, thank you very much. ah, to hong kong, now we are, carry, lamb has given her final press conference today is leader of the territory. her turn has been to more to us, marked by violent pro democracy unrest, a crackdown by badging and a pandemic that's left thousands did. but little of that factor into lans,

comments to the media. she told reporters she was proud of her record. lamb said the territories governance had improved since paging. put quote, patriots in power. let speak now to tom grundy, editor in chief of hong kong, free press. welcome to d w. news asia carry lamb says she has no regrets about her time in office, but she does leave behind a very complicated, controversial legacy. could you talk us through that? yes. well, that was said that she's proud of her tenure in the spinal days. but 3 years ago this week, she offered a quote, solemn, a sincere apology for sparking those 2019 anti extradition bill protests. but now say that the government did nothing wrong. nevertheless, as far as critics are concerned, she oversaw the biggest worse and rest since the $960.00 millions on the streets. $10000.00 ultimately arrested us sanctions against top officials over 60 civil

society groups disbanded over the last couple of years amid the security laura newspaper rate, most of the opposition now behind bars of insult exile. also nearly 10000 cubic deaths. an uptick in poverty and a huge accidents, the brain drain, as residents leave the city. she will say that, you know, the security or as, as offered stability. she was up against the cold pandemic. and this new infrastructure with an art up. but to be honest, the most people she will not be mixed. now if we, if we look forward, carrie lambs, her placement as hong kong leda is going to be john lee. what can we expect after he's inaugurated on july the 1st? well this. busy police officer was chosen in a small circle election by establishment leads. it was the only candidate and room at all that you like us in a couple of weeks. president, choosing ping will be in town and will swearing it ex police officer seemed to be

taking up a lot of top like the crafts indicating beijing's insecurity about on kong. lee is not exactly mr. korea, but he will likely get that whatever, pacing he's hoping for. and it certainly indicates perhaps that he, the crap bound, will continue to grow long. he has promised don't call security more crowdfunding regulation, a fake news goal, as well as broad plans to tackle the housing crisis. but to be honest to manifesto was quite thin. so it's quite clear what exactly is going to be doing when he takes office. ok, so you expect the crack down to to continue after john lee takes off as let's go back and talk a little bit more about kerry lan and the pandemic which hit hong kong very hard. she enacted strict cove at 19 measures, but now says that de damaged hong kong, international status. who is she blaming here?

that the different county allowed in recent days. i mean experts, settings time lexical measures. we have high immunity, alma crohn, and yet the city still has 7 days quarantine for rivals masks in all places. at old times, 247 full person limits in public. she said this morning that there be no more changes until her success takes over. but you know, business chambers have been begging open the old brain grain companies leaving and yet she finally makes it over the last few days. indeed, damage has been done to the city of international status. it's meant to be a business. but you know, even with success, it's unlikely that we're going to see big changes in policy and the china to bet the ceiling. they said cobra policy policy. it's practically a ideology in contrast to the us approach at this point. and it doesn't seem that

going to change track, at least until the season is sworn in life in november later this year. that was tom grundy, editor in chief of hong kong, free press. tom, thank you very much. and that's it for today on t w. news eyes, you can check out more of our stories on t w dot com, forward slash asia. i'm jared rate in berlin. thanks so much for watching. see tomorrow with every day for us and for our planet. global ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do

we make cities greener? how can we protect animals and their habitats? what to do with all our waste? we can make a difference by choosing reforestation over deforestation recycling over disposable smart new solutions over steam set in our ways. earth is truly unique and we know that that uniqueness is what allows us to live and survive. google ideas, the environmental c global 3000 on d, w, and online with, ah, the united nations warns of a global food crisis as 20000000 tons of grain are trapped in ukraine. we'll show you why block ports are the only problem ukrainian cereals. producers are facing also the show fuel prices. i've been soaring in pakistan as the government has

slash subsidies. will that be enough to unlock much needed financial aid from the international monetary fund? will have expert analysis, and spaniards have long struggled to find work. a new labor reform could change that will take you to madrid, find out. i'm chris kolber, welcome to the program. the united nations has begged world trade ministers not to impose export restrictions on food for humanitarian purposes. the plea comes as the russia's invasion of ukraine has a heightened concerns for global food security. ukraine's black c ports a block preventing the country from exporting its produce. and those farmers that are not busy fighting phase extra difficulty in bringing in the harvest shows that we want some of those. but on the left we have collected these in the fields and marched when we went out there our track the drivers wouldn't work.