A senior Ministry of Justice official said that Minister of Justice Koeut Rith has laid out plans and spearheaded a campaign to clear a backlog of court cases in the capital and provinces in order to strengthen institutional capacity and improve the provision of justice services and contribute to the easing of prison overcrowding.

Nak Seurkirin, secretary of state at the justice ministry, made the remarks at an October 7 press conference held to summarise the ministry’s achievements of the past five years.

He noted that it took one year and one month or a “395-day campaign” for the ministry to clear the backlog.

“The factor that led to the backlog was the Royal Government's interest in providing peace for the people, particularly protecting public order. The government launched a campaign against various crimes, especially drug crimes, natural resources crimes and forest crimes,” he said, referring to crack downs on various activities which led to an increase in court cases.

He also said that the campaign was implemented successfully and was generally approved of by the people. In the meantime, there has been an increase in the number of criminal cases occurring in the provincial and town courts adding to their prison's overcrowding problems.

He emphasised that in order to ensure that the campaign was carried out effectively and according to plan, the justice ministry established mechanisms to ensure that the implementation of the campaign to clear the backlog was carried out responsibly by all of the teams involved.

According to the ministry’s data, the campaign contributed to reducing the overcrowding by reducing the prison population by a total of 39,310 persons.