Mr. Hun Xen: Who was behind the 30 March 1997 terrorist grenade attack against peaceful demonstrators in front of the NA?

Cambodia's terrorist-in-chief?

Hun Sen Links US ‘Freedom Fighter’ to Opposition, Terrorism

Chun Sakada & Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh and Washington Thursday, 24 June 2010

“The United States government regards the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters as a terrorist leader who was sentenced to life in prison.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday extolled Cambodia’s cooperation with the US in the life sentence of the leader of a failed anti-government movement, as he sought to link the 2000 attack with the opposition and terrorism.

Chhun Yasith, the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a US court on Tuesday, following his 2005 arrest and 2008 trial.

He was convicted of “conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act by engaging in a military expedition against a nation with whom the United States is at peace and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction in a foreign country,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement.

Chhun Yasith, 53, who is a naturalized US citizen and was an accountant in Long Beach, allegedly orchestrated an attack involving about 50 armed men, who shot at police and government buildings in Phnom Penh one night in November 2000.

The attack failed in short order, and four of the assailants were killed in ensuing shoot-outs with security forces that also wounded 14 people. Around 100 people were arrested in a sweep following the ill-fated attack, though many were later released.

The Cambodian courts eventually sentenced 18 CFF members to prison terms ranging from five years to life. The group was branded a terrorist organization at about the time the US was grappling with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In a public speech Thursday, Hun Sen again called the Cambodian Freedom Fighters a terrorist group that had help from the opposition party, and he praised the US for its sentencing of Chhun Yasith.

“The United States government regards the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters as a terrorist leader who was sentenced to life in prison,” Hun Sen said.

“There are some members of the Sam Rainsy Party who joined the terrorist act, and when His Excellency Sam Rainsy met with me, he would always ask me to pardon members of the Sam Rainsy Party who joined to fight in the Cambodian Freedom Fights,” Hun Sen said.

SRP lawmakers in April requested the release of 12 party members now serving time for the attack.

SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said some of the opposition supporters had been duped by the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, “because they had a low education, little information, confusion and lots of CFF tricks.”

In California Wednesday, Chhun Yashith’s wife, Pich Sros, called the sentencing “unjust,” and his lawyer, Richard Callahan, said he would appeal it.

Oxnard man faces 210-year sentence for sexually abusing Cambodian girls

Six of the seven girls who were drugged, beaten and raped at his Phnom Penh compound were brought to the U.S. to speak at his sentencing hearing. Former ambassador urges maximum penalty.

September 26, 2008
By Scott Glover
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer (California, USA)

Mussomeli, who stepped down from the post last month, wrote that corruption, lack of respect for the rule of law, and the trafficking of women and children "have created a breeding ground where pedophiles can integrate into the expatriate community and prey on the weak and defenseless."

The young girl stood at the podium in a cavernous federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, 8,000 miles and a world away from her native Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

A prosecutor offered her a wooden footstool to stand on so she could better see the judge, but the girl declined.

She eyed the defendant, a retired U.S. Marine captain who had done unspeakable things to her and six other girls. He was seated just a few feet away with a smirk on his face.

The girl, 14, rocked back and forth, seeming to summon the courage to speak, and then, in a voice so faint it could barely be heard, she did.

"I don't want any other children to be like us," she told U.S. District Court Judge Dale S. Fischer through a translator. "Please don't allow this to happen again."

The girl spoke during a sentencing hearing for Michael Joseph Pepe, 53, of Oxnard. Pepe was convicted in May of having sex with seven Cambodian girls age 9 to 12. He faces a maximum sentence of 210 years in federal prison.

Pepe was working as a teacher in Cambodia when he hired a prostitute to procure the children from their families, according to testimony in the three-week trial. The victims, six of whom were flown to the United States to testify, said Pepe drugged, bound, beat and raped them in his compound in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. In addition to the victims' testimony, prosecutors showed jurors restraints, sedatives and homemade child pornography seized by Cambodian National Police during a raid of Pepe's residence in 2006.

Cambodian police began investigating Pepe after receiving complaints of suspected child sexual abuse in the house where he lived. U.S. authorities later joined the investigation at the request of their Cambodian counterparts.

All of the victims were in court Thursday, but it took some coaxing from Fischer to get them to speak.

"I don't want you to be afraid," the judge told the girls, one of whom clutched a fluffy pink teddy bear. "This is a safe place."

Then, one after another, they got up and said a few words. Some stole nervous glances at Pepe as they spoke.

"What he did to me, it's very painful," said one girl in a striped dress. Another, with long black hair and a sweet voice, told the judge: "I just want to say thank you that you helped me find justice."

Social workers who are helping to care for the girls in Cambodia told Fischer the youngsters probably would be traumatized for the rest of their lives, particularly in a culture in which victims of sexual abuse are stigmatized.

"The culture that they live in considers these children as refuse now," said Don Brewster, who runs a mission in Cambodia that helpssexuallyabused children. "They have a life sentence of overcoming what their culture thinks of them."

After Brewster spoke, Fischer again addressed the girls.

"Nothing that happened to you is your fault," the judge said through a pair of translators who conveyed her message to the girls seated in the courtroom gallery. "You are all very brave and strong to come here and testify."

Pepe, who was dressed in white jail jumpsuit, did not speak during the hourlong hearing.

He is expected to be sentenced Nov. 4, after Fischer has had an opportunity to weigh the victims' statements and other issues in the case, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Patricia A. Donahue, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Among the materials the judge probably will consider is a letter from the former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, Joseph A. Mussomeli, asking that she impose the maximum sentence.

Mussomeli, who stepped down from the post last month, wrote that corruption, lack of respect for the rule of law, and the trafficking of women and children "have created a breeding ground where pedophiles can integrate into the expatriate community and prey on the weak and defenseless."

He added: "A well-publicized and strong sentence will send a clear and unequivocal signal that this illicit behavior will not be tolerated."

Ex-construction executive sentenced to 17.5 years for child porn [from Cambodia]

January 30, 2008
Jim Leusner
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer (Florida, USA)

A former Lake Buena Vista construction executive, accused of abusing and photographing more than 50 Asian children and distributing their pictures on the Internet, was sentenced Tuesday to 17 1/2 years in federal prison and placed on lifetime supervision.

The sentencing of William Irey, 50, of Orlando, revealed two contrasting portraits of the man: one an admitted pedophile who traveled to Cambodia in 2006 to exploit young children; the other a civic-minded family man who, according to mental-health experts, could be rehabilitated with a low risk of re-offending.

Defense lawyer Kirk Kirkconnell argued that Irey's conduct stemmed from a "compartmentalized" problem in an otherwise stellar life. For much of the 90-minute hearing, he presented testimony that his client -- who faced a minimum-mandatory 15-year-sentence and maximum of 30 years -- deserved leniency.

Experts and family members testified that Irey has been receiving treatment in a Leesburg hospital during the past year and was an outstanding father with a long record of service with such organizations as the United Way, YMCA and Rotary International.

"I hurt a lot of people," Irey said in an apology to the judge, the government, his family and friends. "I can't undo that."

U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell gave Irey the lighter sentence after ascribing his acts "largely due to an illness," which he said was treatable.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Hawkins objected to the sentence. She had pressed for the maximum, calling Irey the smiling "star" of photos taken with the children he assaulted, many ages four through six. Hawkins said he also "wrote filth" on their bodies and "inserted objects" into them. She said he rented children at brothels for up to $1,500.

More than 1,200 photos seized from Irey's computers were some of the "most egregious images" ever seen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Child-abuse groups who know the photos from the Internet call them "The Pink Wall Series," Hawkins said.

Irey is the former chief executive officer of Frank Irey Construction Inc., a Walt Disney World contractor which worked on Epcot's Mission:Space and facilities at Hong Kong Disneyland through a related Chinese company.

Jim Leusner can be reached at jleusner@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5411.

Florida retiree sentenced in sex tourism case [in Cambodia, Thailand, VN, and RP]

Friday, November 16, 2007
Associated Press

DETROIT -- A retired truck driver will spend 9 years and 2 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he traveled to Asia to have sex with children as young as 8 years old.

Karl Kaechele of St. Petersburg, Fla., was arrested in 2005 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport upon returning from a 90-day trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Kaechele pleaded guilty in August to federal charges of traveling with intent to engage in illicit conduct -- commonly known as sex tourism. The 65-year-old could have been sentenced to up to 30 years behind bars.

Immigration agents say Kaechele's luggage contained photos that included images of nude girls, and notebooks in which he described sexual encounters with girls in detail.

Miami Man Sentenced to 40 Years in Prison for Sex Tourism and Child Pornography Offenses [in Cambodia]

WASHINGTON, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Miami resident Kent Frank was sentenced to 40 years in prison on sex tourism and child pornography charges, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today.

Federal District Judge Adalberto Jordan also ordered Frank to pay a $25,000 fine and serve 15 years of supervised release.

On April 5, 2007, a federal jury in Miami found Frank guilty of eight counts of child exploitation offenses related to his sexual abuse of three young females in Cambodia. Frank was convicted of four counts of traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. The jury also found Frank guilty of three counts of purchasing a minor with the intent to produce child pornography and one count of traveling in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

Frank engaged in commercial sex acts with three underage girls during two trips to Cambodia between September 2003 and January 2004. Evidence showed that Frank paid underage girls in Cambodia money for sex and to pose for pornographic pictures.

The prosecution stemmed from the Jan. 1, 2004, arrest of Frank in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by the Cambodian National Police (CNP), on debauchery charges. The CNP found four females, including the three minors that Frank was convicted of exploiting, coming out of Frank's hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on the day of Frank's arrest.

The case was investigated by agents Gary Phillips and Taekuk Cho in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Attache Office in Bangkok, Thailand, and George Rodriguez and Shawn Newton in the ICE office in Miami. The anti-trafficking unit of the CNP provided substantial assistance in this case. The non-governmental organization AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes En Situation Precaire, or Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), which sheltered the four females after they were found at Frank's hotel, has also been instrumental in efforts to protect and care for minor victims of prostitution. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Morales of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida in Miami and Trial Attorney Wendy Waldron of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.