LEAD: Cambodia's former anti-drugs chief gets life for trafficking

Jan 5, 2012, 10:57 GMT

Eds: Adds background, rights group reaction =

Phnom Penh (dpa) - The former head of Cambodia's anti-drugs office was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for masterminding a drugs ring from his office, a court official said.

Lieutenant General Mok Dara, secretary general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs until his arrest in January 2011, faced more than 30 counts of bribery and drug trafficking and received a life sentence in Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court, prosecutor Phan Vanroth said.

An associate, anti-drugs officer Chea Leang, also received a life sentence while a third defendant, Morn Doeun, who was at large, was sentenced to 25 years by the court in the north-western province, which borders Thailand.

The case, which lasted several weeks, was one of the largest to go through Cambodia's court system and involved the testimonies of scores of witnesses.

Cambodia has been working in recent years to reduce corruption. Mok Dara's is the latest in a string of cases brought by the government's new Anti-Corruption Unit.

In November, Banteay Meanchey former police chief Hun Hean was sentenced to four years in prison after confessing to accepting more than 100,000 dollars in bribes, according to local media.

Mok Dara maintained he was innocent, people attending the proceedings said.

Nop Virak, a trial monitor at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights who observed the case, said Mok Dara's sentencing would serve as a warning to corrupt officials.

But it was 'not an effective application of the law,' he said.

'They should have charged both accomplice and perpetrator,' he said, adding there were 'many involved parties who confessed and remain free.'