By Jean Gerrard
DPA
Phnom Penh - A Belgian man convicted twice for child sex offences was expelled from Cambodia seven weeks after a coalition of child protection organizations petitioned authorities to expel him, a media report said Wednesday. Philippe Dessart, 49, was put on a plane to Thailand last week, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported.
"We had enough legal grounds," the national police spokesman told the newspaper. "We didn't decide to deport him to Belgium; we just decided that he should be out of our country. Wherever he went to, it was his right."
Dessart was released from a Cambodian jail in April having spent three years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. On his release, he sparked outrage from child protection organizations by marrying the boy's mother after moving into her home in western Cambodia.
Dessart was previously convicted of child sex offences in his native Belgium, serving time there in the 1990s for child rape and torture.
Dessart's lawyer said his client's deportation was an abuse of his rights.
"He was with his wife; police came to invite him to a commune police station telling him that the national commissioner orders you to be expelled," Dun Vibol told the newspaper. "[On arrival in Thailand Dessart] called me saying he's got nothing with him and said they don't respect the law in Cambodia."
"We had enough legal grounds," the national police spokesman told the newspaper. "We didn't decide to deport him to Belgium; we just decided that he should be out of our country. Wherever he went to, it was his right."
Dessart was released from a Cambodian jail in April having spent three years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. On his release, he sparked outrage from child protection organizations by marrying the boy's mother after moving into her home in western Cambodia.
Dessart was previously convicted of child sex offences in his native Belgium, serving time there in the 1990s for child rape and torture.
Dessart's lawyer said his client's deportation was an abuse of his rights.
"He was with his wife; police came to invite him to a commune police station telling him that the national commissioner orders you to be expelled," Dun Vibol told the newspaper. "[On arrival in Thailand Dessart] called me saying he's got nothing with him and said they don't respect the law in Cambodia."
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THE trial of seven men charged with the gang rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl last Saturday in Kampong Cham province is set to begin today. The men, all from Vihear Loung district, Soung village, have been held at the Soung police station since their arrest on Sunday, one day after the alleged attack took place.
Soung village police Chief Leang Eng told the Post on Tuesday that the victim lived in the same neighbourhood as her attackers. One of the men in custody had apparently fallen in love with the girl, Leang Eng said, but felt he was unable to marry her because he was too poor. On the day of the attack, the man asked her to accompany him for a walk in the woods. It was there, only 200 metres from her home, Leang Eng said, that the six additional men sprung upon her.
“They raped her one by one at the time until she fell unconscious. Then they killed her by stabbing her with a knife 12 times in the back before finally slitting her throat,” Leang Eng said, adding that the girl’s body was found by her own family a day later.
“This is truly the cruellest case I have ever seen. I never thought anyone was capable of this. They must not feel any pity in their heart. They treated her like an animal that could be killed at any time.”
Leang Eng said the victims’ parents were grief-stricken at the loss of their only daughter and seeking harsh punishments for those responsible.
Thov Chenda, a provincial monitor for local rights group Adhoc, voiced concern about the increasing incidence of rape in Kampong Cham. “The government should educate people in rural areas about law and morality,” she said. According to a recent Adhoc report, there have been 15 cases of rape in Kampong Cham province so far this year.
In this case, they should put these guys in prison at least half of their life to life.
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