sorta entrepreneur at a specific goal to build the best optical instruments in the world. ah little did he know that devices bearing his name would one day feature in the moon, minding through science, into new realms. the rise of a global company, 175 years of size starts june 19th on d w 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 a tarion 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 called the death of cambodia, democracy, a court in the capitol pin 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 dissent 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. oh.

this house 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 parties, main rival whatever. i am ready for the sham verdict that will be announced that morning which will be guilty wording. i am ready and prepared to god till that notorious can board in prison for my political opinions for my belief. i for my belief 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 and 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 any remaining opposition. we can go now to bangkok and speak to phil robertson, 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 and 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 in 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 actually right. i mean, it's quite clear that the cambodian government is becoming more dictatorial by the day rights abuses are expanding across the country. there is no political opposition elected, political opposition really to speak of. and you know, once and then his is party and his government 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 send what means to the international community have to pressure him over this and 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 and everything, but arms agreement with cambodia and 20 percent of that was suspended before the pandemic yet because labor rights violations. i think that the european union should go back to that again and, and look at taking more frankly. cambodia is in clear violation of the terms of the agreement that requires cambodia to follow existing international human rights treaties and labor rights conventions and, and kimberly is doing none of it. now critics of hon. sin say that over many years, he has eliminated his critics, but specifically use the pandemic to do this. to. to what extent did he use coven 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 responds and can. but he was not up to snuff that, for instance, some of the vaccines that they had received from certain countries were not good. you know, 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. pretty dim, picture this new reality as you say. 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 violated 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 and on been people who are campaigning against a dams against land seizures against other environmental issues at 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 repression against anybody who raises criticism against the government in cambodia. that was phil robinson, 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 says 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 the 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 it and yeah, 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 than rest since the 1960 millions on the streets, 10000 ultimately arrested us sanctions against top officials over 60 civil society

groups disbanded over the last couple of years. i made 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 co adamic. 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 lady is going to be john lee. what can we expect after he's in the ration 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. presidential ping will be in town and will swearing it ex police

officer seemed to be taking up a lot of top like the crops indicating beijing's insecurity about on kong. lee is not exactly mr. korea, but he will likely get an act. whatever. pacing is hoping for and it certainly indicates perhaps that he, the crap bound, will continue to grow long. he has promised to 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? human county allowed in recent days. i mean experts, settings time lexical good measures. we have high immunity, alma crohn, and yet this, 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 they'll be no changes until her successor takes over. but you know, business chambers have been begging open the old maid, brain grain companies leaving and yet she finally made it over the last few days. indeed, damage has been done to the city international states has it's meant to be a business. but you know, even with success or it's unlikely that we're going to see big changes in policy until the china to bet the ceiling cobra or policy policy. it's practically an 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. rearing to read. ah, everyone who loves books has to go insane. ah, the d. w literature list,

a 100 german must reads. on the green. do you feel worried about the planet we to i'm neil, host of the on the grievance of cost and to me, it's clear. we need to change. the solutions are out there. join me for a deep dive into the green transformation for me to do full of them. ah, ah, the united nations warns of a global food crisis as 20000000 tons of grain or traps in ukraine. we'll show you why block ports are the only problem ukrainian cereals. producers are face. 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 struggle to find work. a new labor reform could change that will take you to madrid, to 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 rushes invasion of ukraine has heightened concerns for global food security . ukraine's black see ports of 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 occur when someone has but on the collector we have to collect these in the fields in march. when we went out there, our tracking drivers wouldn't work.