Closing statements wrap up in Lam sisters' murder trial in Ottawa
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Hue Ai Lam and her sister Chau Khan Lam face first-degree murder charges in relation to the death of their mother, Kieu Lam, in October 2022.
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Both sisters pleaded not guilty, saying they killed their mother after suffering from years of verbal and physical abuse.
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Ewan Lyttle, Chau's lawyer, and Paolo Giancaterino, Hue's lawyer, argued the sisters were acting in self-defence.
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Kieu never showed her daughters love and affection, they said. Instead, they said, she physically and verbally assaulted them for decades, which caused deep psychological harm.
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Giancaterino also said the abuse escalated after Hue was diagnosed with Parkinson's, which left her with the decreased ability to defend herself.
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'This is a case about a woman who, throughout her adult years, was controlled, demeaned and subjected to violence at the hands of her mother, who once she was no longer of use to her mother faced an escalation of the emotional and physical violence to the point that she attempted to commit suicide,' Giancaterino said.
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Lyttle also said Chau was isolated from the world, forbidden from having any semblance of a social life in Ottawa.
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Despite living in the city for 30 years, Lyttle said Chau did not have any friends and rarely visited her brothers. Chau had to ask her mother for permission if she wanted to go out of the house, or else the elderly woman would accuse her of being disobedient.
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He pointed to statements where Chau said she stayed home to take care of her mother but was physically abused. Kieu once jabbed Chau in the forehead while getting her toenails clipped, she said while on the witness stand earlier this month.
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'You must understand that child was in her mother's presence, literally, 24 hours a day for decades. She was impossible to avoid,' Lyttle told the jury.
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Lyttle and Giancaterino told the jury the sisters ultimately felt like they did not have a lot of options to leave the abuse because of cultural expectations.
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Ottawa Citizen
29-07-2025
- Ottawa Citizen
Closing statements wrap up in Lam sisters' murder trial in Ottawa
Closing arguments have wrapped up in the murder trial of two Vietnamese sisters in Ottawa, and the jury is expected to be sequestered starting Tuesday. Article content Hue Ai Lam and her sister Chau Khan Lam face first-degree murder charges in relation to the death of their mother, Kieu Lam, in October 2022. Article content Article content Both sisters pleaded not guilty, saying they killed their mother after suffering from years of verbal and physical abuse. Article content Article content Ewan Lyttle, Chau's lawyer, and Paolo Giancaterino, Hue's lawyer, argued the sisters were acting in self-defence. Article content Article content Kieu never showed her daughters love and affection, they said. Instead, they said, she physically and verbally assaulted them for decades, which caused deep psychological harm. Article content Giancaterino also said the abuse escalated after Hue was diagnosed with Parkinson's, which left her with the decreased ability to defend herself. Article content 'This is a case about a woman who, throughout her adult years, was controlled, demeaned and subjected to violence at the hands of her mother, who once she was no longer of use to her mother faced an escalation of the emotional and physical violence to the point that she attempted to commit suicide,' Giancaterino said. Article content Lyttle also said Chau was isolated from the world, forbidden from having any semblance of a social life in Ottawa. Article content Article content Despite living in the city for 30 years, Lyttle said Chau did not have any friends and rarely visited her brothers. Chau had to ask her mother for permission if she wanted to go out of the house, or else the elderly woman would accuse her of being disobedient. Article content Article content He pointed to statements where Chau said she stayed home to take care of her mother but was physically abused. Kieu once jabbed Chau in the forehead while getting her toenails clipped, she said while on the witness stand earlier this month. Article content 'You must understand that child was in her mother's presence, literally, 24 hours a day for decades. She was impossible to avoid,' Lyttle told the jury. Article content Lyttle and Giancaterino told the jury the sisters ultimately felt like they did not have a lot of options to leave the abuse because of cultural expectations.
Winnipeg Free Press
18-07-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cambodia continues raids on scam centers, bringing arrests in past 3 weeks over 2,100
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Authorities in Cambodia continued their stepped-up campaign against online scam centers, arresting at least 500 suspects in two provinces on Thursday and Friday, the country's information minister said. The arrests in Kandal province on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh, and in the northeastern province of Stung Treng, brought to 2,137 the total number detained since June 27, Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said in a statement. Those netted in raids in 43 locations around the country included 429 Vietnamese, 271 Indonesians, 589 Chinese, 57 Koreans, 70 Bangladeshi and 42 Pakistanis, said his statement. Other suspects were from Thailand, Laos, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Myanmar. The United Nations and other agencies have estimated that cyberscams, most of them originating from Southeast Asia, earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually. The cybercriminals pretend friendship or tout phony investment opportunities to cheat their targets around the world. Neth Pheaktra's statement said Cambodia's crackdown is ongoing 'and will absolutely continue, with a clear mandate from the top leadership to root out all illegal cybercrime activity — regardless of location or affiliation.' He said it was strengthened by a directive issued Monday by Prime Minister Hun Manet that threatened state personnel at all levels with transfers or dismissal if they failed to act vigorously against cyberscams. The latest arrests followed 2,418 others in the first six months of the year involving 18 alleged scam operations in different parts of the country, said a report from the National Police Commissioner cited by Neth Pheaktra. These resulted in 73 prosecutions and 2,322 foreigners being deported, it said. Workers at scam centers are often recruited under false pretenses and then held captive to work under tight guard. 'Jobseekers from Asia and beyond are lured by the promise of well-paid work into hellish labour camps run by well-organized gangs, where they are forced to scam under the very real threat of violence,' the human rights groups Amnesty International said in a report issued last month. It said the findings of its 18-month investigation into cyberscams 'suggest there has been coordination and possibly collusion between Chinese compound bosses and the Cambodian police, who have failed to shut down compounds despite the slew of human rights abuses taking place inside.' The kingpins of many online scam operations tend to be ethnic Chinese organized crime bosses, who generally operate outside China in areas with weak law enforcement. A spokesperson for the Cambodian human rights organization Licadho, which is often critical of the government, noted the country's poor reputation due to cybercrime, and welcomed the crackdown. 'This campaign should have been launched long ago because Cambodia has been criticized by international organizations, the international community, and the United Nations for online fraud in Cambodia, which has affected Cambodia's image, international tourists, investment, security, order, and social security,' Licadko's operations director Am Sam Ath, told The Associated Press. 'However, launching this campaign is good to demonstrate the Royal Government's determination and willingness to prevent and suppress online fraud and trust,' he said, noting that other members of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations had also acted this year to suppress online crime.
Winnipeg Free Press
16-07-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cambodia makes 1,000 arrests in latest crackdown on cybercrime
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia on Wednesday said that an order by Prime Minister Hun Manet for government bodies to crackdown on criminal cybercrime operations being run in the country had resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects so far this week. Hun Manet issued the order authorising state action for 'maintaining and protecting security, public order, and social safety.' 'The government has observed that online scams are currently causing threats and insecurity in the world and the region. In Cambodia, foreign criminal groups have also infiltrated to engage in online scams,' Hun Manet's statement, dated Tuesday, said. The United Nations and other agencies estimate that cyberscams, most of them originating from Southeast Asia, earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually. More than 1,000 suspects were arrested in raids in at least five provinces between Monday and Wednesday, according to statements from Information Minister Neth Pheaktra and police. Those detained included more than 200 Vietnamese, 27 Chinese, and 75 suspects from Taiwan and 85 Cambodians in the capital Phnom Penh and the southern city of Sihanoukville. Police also seized equipment, including computers and hundreds of mobile phones. At least 270 Indonesians, including 45 women, were arrested Wednesday in Poipet, a town on the border with Thailand notorious for cyberscam and gambling operations, the minister said. Elsewhere, police in the northeastern province of Kratie arrested 312 people, including nationals of Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, while 27 people from Vietnam, China and Myanmar were arrested in the western province of Pursat. Amnesty International last month published the findings of an 18-month investigation into cybercrime in Cambodia, which the human rights group said 'point towards state complicity in abuses carried out by Chinese criminal gangs.' 'The Cambodian government is deliberately ignoring a litany of human rights abuses including slavery, human trafficking, child labor and torture being carried out by criminal gangs on a vast scale in more than 50 scamming compounds located across the country,' it said. Human trafficking is closely associated with cyberscam operations, as workers are often recruited under false pretences and then held captive. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'Deceived, trafficked and enslaved, the survivors of these scamming compounds describe being trapped in a living nightmare – enlisted in criminal enterprises that are operating with the apparent consent of the Cambodian government,' Amnesty International's Secretary General Agnes Callamard said. Cambodia's latest crackdown comes in the midst of a bitter feud with neighboring Thailand, which began with a brief armed skirmish in late May over border territory claimed by both nations and has now led to border closures and nearly daily exchanges of nationalistic insults. Friendly former leaders of both countries have become estranged and there have been hot debates over which nation's cultural heritage has influenced the other. Measures initiated by the Thai side, including cutting off cross-border electricity supplies and closing crossing points, have particularly heightened tensions, with Cambodia claiming they were churlish actions of spite to retaliate for its intention to pursue its territorial claims. Thailand said its original intention was to combat long-existing cyberscam operations in Poipet. ——— Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.
