Theary Seng

Theary Chan Seng (born 1971) is a Cambodian-American activist imprisoned in Cambodia. She is an American and Cambodian dual citizen. Prior to her arrest, she was a human-rights activist and lawyer, the former executive director of the Centre for Social Development, and president of the Center for Cambodian Civic Education (CIVICUS Cambodia). She is the author of Daughter of the Killing Fields, a book about her experiences as a child during the Khmer Rouge regime.

She was a high-profile activist for democratic reforms in Cambodia, often wearing elaborate costumes to attract attention to her cause. Her support of the CNRP and the return of its exiled leader, Sam Rainsy, led to the charges of “conspiracy to commit treason” and “incitement to create gross chaos impacting public security,”

In June 2022, in a mass trial, Theary Seng, along with 60 opposition supporters, was sentenced to six years in prison on treason charges, prompting condemnation from rights groups and the U.S. government. The charging document contained no mention of Ms. Seng except for listing her name as one of the accused and contained no factual details about the allegations Seng’s alleged criminal wrongdoing. Her request to obtain information about the evidence for the charges against her were rebuffed by prosecutors. A few day after being imprisoned in Phnom Penh, she was transferred to a remote prison known for its terrible conditions in Preah Vihear where she shares a 16-by-16-foot cell with 19 other women and has been blocked from attending church services and making phone calls.

In a speech on June 28, 2023, Hun Sen stated, “I won’t pardon you [Theary] because I don’t trust foreigners who want to destroy me,” warning that he would not lessen her sentence in light of foreign interference in her case. In July 2023, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated “no trial of Ms. Seng should have taken place” and that she was “targeted because of her activities as a human rights defender who disseminated posts and information that were critical of the Government” and called for her immediate release. The judgment further stated that mass trials like Theary Seng’s “are incompatible with the interests of justice.”

Early life
Born as Chan Theary Seng, she moved to the United States in December 1980 with her four brothers after the Khmer Rouge was defeated by the Vietnamese army. At the age of seven, Theary had lost both her parents and many relatives to the regime. After 1995, she volunteered with a number of labor and human-rights associations. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 2000, and she has been admitted to the New York State Bar Association and American Bar Association. Seng returned to Cambodia in 2004.

Work
She was executive director of the Centre for Social Development, which largely focused on assuring a fair trial in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. She then became the president for CIVICUS, an organization that works on civic education, reconciliation and peace-building. She has worked with many former victims of the Khmer Rouge. Theary organized a darts campaign in Phnom Penh when President Barack Obama paid his first official visit to Cambodia. The game featured former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, which brought attention to asserted American guilt in bringing the Khmer Rouge to power after the bombing.

Seng said that the American bombing in the early 1970s in Cambodia "had the direct consequence of killing half a million people and the indirect consequence of creating the conditions that gave us the Khmer Rouge. Kissinger is legally and morally responsible." She urged that the Khmer Rouge tribunal's mandate should be continued. During Kang Kek Iew aka Duch's trial, she withdrew as a civil party because of a controversy at the court.