Kampong Speu Sugar, run by the wife and son-in-law of ruling-party Senator Ly Yong Phat, received a new permit to open a factory in Aural district, according to the Royal Gazette.

In a prakas signed by the Ministry of Industry on June 6, 2022, and released in the Royal Gazette in May this year, Kampong Speu Sugar, represented by Kim Heang, received a permit to open a factory producing sugar, fertilizer, ethanol and other alcohols in Aural district’s Trapeang Chour commune.

Kim Heang is the wife of Senator Ly Yong Phat. According to Commerce Ministry records, she directs Kampong Speu Sugar together with Seng Nhak, who is married to a daughter of Ly Yong Phat and Kim Heang, Ly Arporn.

Ly Yong Phat, also known as the “King of Koh Kong,” is behind several of the country’s sugar plantations, which have caused violent conflict with local residents and sparked an international “blood sugar” campaign. In Kampong Speu province, he is the chairman of Phnom Penh Sugar, a plantation adjacent to Kampong Speu Sugar and which together span 18,000 hectares of state concessions. Land rights NGO Equitable Cambodia has noted that the two plantations were likely split in two to circumvent the state’s 10,000-hectare limit for land concessions.

Local residents have repeatedly protested over claims that they have not been compensated for forced evictions. In 2020, Australian bank ANZ agreed to pay out over 1,000 Cambodian families for a loan it gave to Phnom Penh Sugar that the bank says violated its human rights standards.

Kim Heang has also received 30 hectares of state land on Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s last lakes. The land is being filled in for real estate developments, and land rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut says around 300 families are being forced to leave their homes.