Mom Vith described her husband as persistent. They met after he had seen her ride a bicycle around their village in Takeo province’s Tralach commune, and he sought her out, eager to get to know her.

She appreciated his determination to get to know her, and it eventually led her to love Phon Yuth. But now that he’s been arrested for a third time, she said his persistence challenges her.

“At one point, at the lowest point of the suffering, I’ve thought that I want to give him up,” she said. But she doesn’t feel that way now, she told reporters. 

Phon Yuth, 42, is currently serving his third prison sentence, all for charges related to his posts on Facebook. Most recently he was arrested on October 29 last year for comments on Facebook related to the Cambodia-Thailand border conflict. But his wife said she still worries about his condition in the Takeo Provincial Prison, as he is unable to use his legs and must use a wheelchair to cover far distances. He also is experiencing severe breathing issues for which he was taken to hospital, according to Mom Vith.

“We haven’t seen each other in six months because he got sick,” she told reporters, saying she had tried to visit in mid-September but was turned away.

‘Why does he do this?’

The couple’s life together has been marked by financial strain. Now living with several relatives on a small farm in Takeo, Mom Vith, 39, said she and her husband relocated around a dozen times in order to try to earn a living. 

Mom Vith is an orphan, so she was determined to earn some income and contribute what she can, she said, even though she also has disabilities that impact her legs and hips. She said she was hesitant to accept his advances initially because Phon Yuth’s parents did not want him to marry her, she said. But when he came to Thailand, following her to a job opportunity she had around 15 years ago as a restaurant dishwasher, she said she became more interested in him and began to care for him too.

They lived together for about two years in a monastery in Thailand, supplementing her restaurant salary by selling bracelets and other trinkets to tourists. But when she got pregnant, they decided to move back to Cambodia. 

Mom Vith gave birth to the couple’s only child 12 years ago, and shortly after they moved from living with Phon Yuth’s brother in Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. She remembered it as one of her happiest times, as the family of three all lived together. But they had to survive by selling bracelets, and sometimes simply begging on the streets.

Throughout this time, Mom Vith started noticing that her husband spent a lot of time on social media, specifically Facebook and then TikTok, posting his concerns.

Phon Yuth’s brother, Phon Sopheap recalls the same. He too had asked his brother to stop posting on social media. 

“I also question him, why does he do this?” he said, saying it can be risky for him too, as some police questioned him, looking for Phon Yuth. “Some people confuse me and him. I’m just his brother.”

But when asked why he thought his brother spoke so persistently on social media, Phon Sopheap noticed a stark difference between the two men. Phon Sopheap is illiterate, while his brother can read. 

“When we’re in the city, we go to the same city but he’s going in a different direction” because of his literacy, he said. “He goes through and looks into things much more [online] before he makes a speech.” 

Fearful presence

Mom Yuth said her husband’s latest arrest was his third time in detention. She said she wished he would stop posting after he spent more than a year in prison from 2024, but he continued shortly after.

He was arrested again in Takeo province last October, after making comments online about the border conflict with Thailand. He had posted on TikTok about the villages facing unrest on the border ahead of the fighting in December, and the leaders of the country. And perhaps like a premonition or a promise, he said he would “dare to go to prison” for his beliefs.

In late April, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison under incitement to commit a felony.

She says she works to save money to visit him and bring food to the Takeo Provincial Prison, but it is a lot of work for her to handle.

“My husband does not dare to tell me any information because the police sit next to him,” she said.

Am Sam Ath, operations director for the human rights NGO Licadho, told Mekong Independent that the multiple arrests show that in spite of his poor financial situation, authorities seem afraid of his social media presence.

“It shows that authorities are too frightened and scared of Phon Yuth who had been repeatedly arrested … it is related to the same issue. This is a very tight restriction of freedom of expressing opinion against a disabled person who is unable to walk.” 

Am Sam Ath said he believed Phon Yuth spoke so frequently “because of his deep caring about society and having seen the inaction in society, so it pushed him not to be scared.”

This article is published as Creative Commons.