Austrian gets 10 years for abusing boys

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Reuters

PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian court sentenced a 64-year-old Austrian man to ten years in jail on Tuesday for sexually abusing boys aged 13 and 14, the trial judge and lawyer said.

Olaf Achleitner of Salzburg, who was arrested in September, denied the allegations and accused police of framing him.

"They were in my house but I did nothing wrong," he told Reuters outside the courtroom as he was led away in handcuffs.

"This is a death sentence for me as an old man."

Achleitner, who worked as a cook at a western restaurant in Phnom Penh, was also ordered to pay $1,000 (512 pounds) in compensation to the two victims.

Cambodia, a deeply impoverished southeast Asian nation, has long-been regarded as a haven for western paedophiles and perverts, although it has stepped up prosecution of foreigners in recent years.

(Reporting by Ek Madra, Editing by Ed Cropley and Sanjeev Miglani)

Austrian held on child sex charges in Cambodia

Wed, 19 Sep 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - An elderly Austrian has been remanded in custody on charges of sexually molesting two teenaged Cambodian boys, police said Wednesday. Olaf Achleitner, 64, was charged by Phnom Penh Municipal Court Tuesday with debauchery, the Cambodian term for sex-related charges, and has now been transferred to the capital's Prey Sar prison, police said.

Phnom Penh Municipal anti-trafficking police chief Eam Ratana said Achleitner had been charged with raping two 14-year-old boys at a guesthouse, but could face further charges.

"He confessed to raping these two and also a number of others," Ratana said by telephone.

He can be held up to six months under Cambodian law while investigations continue. If convicted he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Austrian Man Charged For Second Time With Sexually Abusing Cambodian Boys

2007-09-18
AP

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA: An Austrian man was charged Tuesday (18 Sept) with sexually abusing two Cambodian boys, officials said.

Olaf Achleitner, 64, was charged with debauchery Tuesday, according to Sok Kalyan, a Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor. Debauchery is the Cambodian legal charge covering the crime of having sex with a minor, and is punishable by 10 to 20 years in jail.

In November 2002, police arrested Achleitner for allegedly committing sex offenses against Cambodian boys. But a court released him due to lack of evidence.

At the time, Achleitner said he was born in Salzburg but spent the last three decades living in England, Canada, the Bahamas and the Netherlands before settling in Cambodia in 1999.

Keo Thea, deputy chief of the counter-trafficking police for the capital Phnom Penh, said police had kept Achleitner under surveillance since he was set free after his first arrest five years ago.

He said information leading to the man's arrest last Friday (14 Sept) came from two 14-year-old boys who claimed the suspect had often taken them to his apartment and sexually abused them there.

Lax law enforcement and poverty have made Cambodia a prime destination for foreigners seeking sex with minors. But police have recently stepped up efforts to fight the crime.