Cambodia: Dane and Girlfriend In Jail for Drug Possession

"The court sentenced Jesper Hvidberg Larsen and Sam Srey Srors to two years in jail, but ordered them to serve only one year each, and fined them 3 million riel ($750) for drug possession and drug use." Presiding Judge said in his verdict.

18 September 2011
ScandAsia.com

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday sentenced a Danish national and his Cambodian girlfriend to one year in prison and a year's probation for drug possession and use following their arrest in Phnom Penh in March with $140 worth of heroin and methamphetamines.

Jesper Hvidberg Larsen, 43 and Sam Srey Srors, 25, were originally charged with drug trafficking, though in court on Sept. 9, Mr Larsen testified that the drugs were for his personal consumption.

"The court sentenced Jesper Hvidberg Larsen and Sam Srey Srors to two years in jail, but ordered them to serve only one year each, and fined them 3 million riel ($750) for drug possession and drug use." Presiding Judge said in his verdict.

Man jailed over sex tourism in Cambodia

Wed Jun 8 2011
9News (Australia)

A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced a Danish man to eight years in prison for providing his young male guesthouse staff for sex with tourists, a judge said.

Svend Erick Jonasson, 65, was arrested in the northwestern tourist hub of Siem Reap last August for letting his guests have sex with four male Cambodian workers aged between 15 and 19.

The guests would allegedly pay them between $15 and $50 for sex, with Jonasson taking a cut.

Dane charged over sex tourism in Cambodia: official

Sunday, August 29, 2010
AFP

PHNOM PENH — A Cambodian provincial court has charged a Danish man with providing his young male guesthouse staff for sex with tourists in the country's northwest, an official said Saturday.

Svend Erick Jonasson, 64, was arrested in Siem Reap for allegedly letting his guests have sex with his male Cambodian workers aged 15, 17 and 21, said Chea Heng, from the government's anti-human trafficking department.

He said the victims charged 15 to 50 US dollars for sex with the suspect's customers, with Jonasson, whose was arrested Thursday, taking five US dollars of the fee.

"The victims have told us everything, but he has not confessed," said Chea Heng. "He could face up to 15 years in jail."

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child-sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.

Man released after eight months in Cambodian jail

Wednesday, 30 June 2010
The Copenhagen Post

Cambodian authorities have dropped paedophile charges against a Danish man who had allegedly confessed to the crime

A 61-year-old Danish man accused of being a paedophile has been released by Cambodian police after authorities decided to drop the charges against him.

The man’s lawyer Michael Juul Eriksen confirmed his client’s release from Banteay Meanchey Prison near the city of Poipet, located in the northwest part of Cambodia near the Thai border. The man had been held in custody at the prison for the past eight months, and police told media he had already confessed to the crime.

Eriksen said his client is now in Bangkok awaiting a return flight to Denmark.

Earlier this year, Cambodian authorities also released another Dane, 55-year-old Johanne Axelsen, who had been held on drug smuggling charges.

Jørgen K. Hansen Enjoys Prison Life in Cambodia

Jørgen K. Hansen has been behind these walls since November 2009. And he will still be there for some time. (Photos Niels C. Jensen)

Suspected for having sex with children and organizing the same for his friends, former Danish businessman and third-world supporter Jørgen K. Hansen is still waiting for his trial to begin. While waiting his friends come to visit and brings him food every day. But he does not want to talk to journalists.

12.02.2010
Niels C. Jensen
ScandAsia.com

The Danish businessman and third-world supporter Jørgen K. Hansen is still imprisoned in Cambodia at the Banteay Meanchey Provinsual Prison close to Poipet suspected for having sex with minors and being involved in procuring. But he his not left all alone:

“Everyday his friends come to visit him and everyday a Cambodian woman, one of his friends brings him food,” says the one of the prison guards Sang Rattaná.

Wednesday the 10th February I meet Jørgen K. Hansen in the courtyard at the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Prison where he still waiting for the trial to begin, but for now no one seems to know when Jørgen K. Hansen will be in front of a judge.

Among good friends

I meet Jørgen K. Hansen seated in the middle of group of a Cambodian people and woman is giving him a back massage. When we try to talk to him he just refuses by saying: "Go – go away” and “Fuck off” several times and finally he calls a guard, who shows us the way out of the prison.

Just outside the prison we get in contact with a Cambodian woman who claims that she and her family have been very good friends of Jørgen K. Hansen for several years. She also tells that she everyday brings food to him in the prison. Which the prison guard Sang Rattaná confirms.

The Cambodian woman also tells that she and her family have been in Denmark to visit Jørgen K. Hansen and that they in some periods have lived in the same house in Cambodia.

Her husband is interpreter for Jørgen K. Hansen. The husband confirms that but he denies being a close friend of Jørgen K. Hansen and refuses to talk about the lawsuit.

With money you can

Sang Rattaná, one of the prison guards explains that all the prisoners have to work every day in the prison. But he also tells that Jørgen K. Hansen never works and that he sleeps in a bed while the other inmates sleep at a madras on the floor.

Sources from the police tell that they think Jørgen K. Hansen may be able to pay his way out of his problems in Cambodia: “If he has enough money and a good layer maybe he could just walk out from here as a free man when the trial finish.”

Background story

Jørgen K. Hansen was in November 2009 caught by the Cambodian police together with a 13-year old girl in a room at Ngy Heng Hotel in border town Poipet.

He had also three other girls waiting in three different rooms at the same hotel, according to the police they were waiting for some friends of the Danish businessman.

Danish man charged with child sex abuse in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Nov 2, 2009 (AFP) - A Cambodian court has charged a Danish man with sexually abusing three underage girls in a northwestern border town, officials said Monday.

Banteay Meanchey provincial court on Sunday charged Kenneth Hansen-Jorgen, 61, with sexual abuse of children and he faces at least 10 years in jail if convicted, prosecutor So Vath told AFP.

The mother of one of the children was also charged with prostituting her daughter to the suspect, the prosecutor said.

Hansen-Jorgen allegedly crossed from Thailand into Cambodia and took the girls, all aged under 15, to a guesthouse in the border town of Poipet, said provincial police chief Hun Hean.

"He has confessed to us through translation that he has had sex with the girls, and the victims have also told us about him," the police chief added.

Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.

Johanne Vinther Axelsen to Stay in Prison for 15 Years

Johanne Vinther Axelsen is led back to the Cambodian prison after the appeal case.

2009-09-08
By Sarah Mia Haagerup
ScandAsia.com

The Danish woman Johanne Vinther Axelsen who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Cambodia for trying to send thousands of headache pills out of the country had her appeal case rejected Monday by the Cambodian court. Clearly shaken she was led back to prison.

The Danish woman Johanne Vinther Axelsen was both chocked and upset when the Cambodian court decided to reject her appeal and uphold the initial sentence of 15 years in prison. Immediately after the sentence was given she was returned to Correctional Center No.2 in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh where she, according to her lawyer, sits with 45 other prisoners in a 60 square metre cell 23 hours a day.

In January 55 year old Johanne Vinther Axelsen was arrested for trying to send 28 envelopes with 10.761 normal headache pills containing codeine from a post office in Cambodia to America. Johanne Vinther Axelsen send the pills as a favour to her son who had build up a business selling pills to North America. On the 15th of January she was sentenced to 15 years in prison – a verdict that was later appealed.

Evidence destroyed

According to Johanne Vinther Axelsen’s Danish lawyer, Henrik Hasseris Olesen, one of the parcels, which she is convicted of having sent, occurred before she went into the country. He also added that the Cambodian police had indicated to the court that they had destroyed all the envelopes in the case except one.

Johanne Vinther Axelsen's Cambodian defence lawyer, Sok San Muenchen, will now try to appeal to Cambodia's Supreme Court. At the same time her Danish lawyer will try to get her conditions of imprisonment eased through the Danish Foreign Ministry.

Danish Woman In Custody Risk Up To 10 Years in Cambodian Prison

2008-04-22
By Bjarne Wildau
ScandAsia - Denmark

The Danish woman, Axelexen Johanne Vinther, who got arrested for an attempt to smuggle more than 10000 headache pills tablets out of Cambodia, is now held in police custody. And she could face up to 10 years in a Cambodian prison, if convicted.

The woman arrived in Cambodia three weeks, before at fast thinking post officer in a post office got suspicious, and alarmed the police. A few minutes later, she was arrested in front of the post office.

The Danish representative in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh is aware of the case, and has already paid a visit to the 45 year old woman, who is held in a woman and youth prison at the outskirt of the town, writes the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet...

”She is very calm and composed, but at the same time also shaken by the fact that she is in jail. But she is doing fairly well, and is treated well. The prison is in a reasonable condition, and she can talk a little with the other prisoners", say the head of the Danish representation, Tom Hansen.

Axelexen Johanne Vinther stayed in Cambodia on a tourist visa before her arrest. She has asked the Danish authorities not to inform her kin’s about her situation. She has confessed that she tried to smuggle the Headache pills out of the country.

“It seems like she would send the pills to her friends in Denmark by mail, to help someone, and to make a little extra money. How much’s, I don’t know. And it’s not my feeling, that she explains her self and her acts very well, Tom Hansen says.

According to the woman’s own explanation, she did not see the shipment as a problem, because the pills can be bought without any prescription in Cambodia. The Danish authorities haven’t seen the written foundation for the conviction, witch is extremely important for the fate of the woman. Right now the Danish citizen is leaning her self to a final conviction of between five and 10 years in jail, Tom Hansen says to Ekstra Bladet.

At the moment Mr. Hansen is trying to find the Dane a lawyer. Axelexen Johanne Vinther will propably stand in front of a just within a week or so, and then the conviction will be decided.

Foreigner Caught Mailing Drugs

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
14 April 2008

A Danish woman is facing charges of drug smuggling, after she was caught trying to mail pills containing codeine—a controlled substance—from a Phnom Penh post office, officials said Friday.

Axelexen Johanne Vinther, 45, had mixed thousands of tablets containing codeine among other medicine and toys in a package bound for the US, officials said.

Authorities confiscated about 1 kilogram of codeine tablets for lab inspection, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Sok Kalyan.

“They kept only the suspect codeine tablets, and took out the toys and medicine in the package,” he said.

Codeine, a widely used opiate, remains legal to buy over the counter in Cambodia, but illegal to ship overseas.

“We have implemented Cambodia and international law,” said Lt. Gen. Lour Ramin, secretary-general of the National Drug Authority. “If she claims innocence, why did she hide codeine with medicine and toys? Now it’s a court matter.”

Vinther has said she was asked only to mail a package in exchange for money, he added.

Court officials say there will be more investigation and lab work in the case.

Several foreign nationals are serving jail time in Cambodia for attempting to mail heroin.

Vinther faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

Danish woman arrested in Cambodia for headache tablet smuggling

Fri, 11 Apr 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - A Danish woman faces drug smuggling charges in Cambodia after she was arrested at the post office allegedly trying to post thousands of tablets containing codeine, a police official said Friday. The secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, Lou Ramin, said Axelexen Johanne Vinther, 45, attracted the suspicion of postal workers at the capital's main post office earlier this week.

Police investigated and allegedly found she was attempting to post 10,761 tablets containing codeine, which is a restricted substance in most Western countries, he said.

"This is not an unusual case - foreigners try to post drugs all the time and we have had many cases such as this," Police General Ramin said. "This is now a matter for the court."

Several African men are currently serving jail terms in Cambodia for attempting to send heroin through the post. However, arrests for posting pharmaceuticals are far less common.

Codeine remains legal to buy and sell across the counter without prescription in Cambodia, but not to post in bulk overseas.

If convicted, Vinther faces up to 20 years in jail.