A prominent human rights investigator has been pulled from Ratanakkiri province after he came under investigation from the provincial court for incitement, officials said Thursday.

In a deal with the court, Pen Bunnar, an investigator for the respected rights monitor Adhoc, will be transferred to another province, Adhoc officials said.

Pen Bunnar had worked in Ratanakkiri, which suffers a high rate of land-grabs and other abuses, for the past five years.

He was charged with incitement of violence when he attempted to coordinate the assembly of 121 families in a dispute over 200 hectares of land with the DM Group, Ltd., in Lumphat district.