ACCORDING to defence lawyer Kao Ty, the court decided to uphold the decision of the provincial court in a closed-door hearing last Friday. “They said if those eight members and workers were released on bail, they would cause a problem again,” he said, adding that he would appeal the decision.

“We wouldn’t go against the court’s decision to detain them if they had provoked people or destroyed company property, but they didn’t,” Ty said.

Provincial court judge Cheum Rithy yesterday said a trial date had not been set and defended his decision to hold the unionists, saying that to “release them on bail . . . will affect or disturb our investigation”.

In a message published in an ad in the Post last month, Sabrina president Susan Chen appealed to the Cambodian government “to firmly uphold the rights of law-abiding bona fide investors such as Sabrina factory”.