Jun 10, 2006
Phnom Penh (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) - Senior Cambodian justice officials were tight-lipped Saturday over the decision by the Australian government not to extradite an accused sex offender due to concerns over Cambodia's ability to provide a fair trial.
Australian English teacher Clinton Rex Betterridge, 39, who was convicted of paedophilia in Cambodia in absentia in January 2003, walked free from a Queensland jail last night after the Australian government announced its decision he could be tortured and denied natural justice if extradited to Cambodia to serve a 10 year jail term.
Ang Vong Vathana, a secretary for the Cambodian justice minister, said Saturday that the minister was in France and could not comment until next week. The chief of the Cambodian Prosecutors Department, Pinn Panyavuth, also declined comment.
The Australian government's decision to release Betterridge came the same day as the Phnom Penh Appeals Court upheld his sentence despite all the females recanting their testimonies against Betterridge and a second Australian national, his former flatmate Bart Lauwaert, 38, who is currently serving 20 years.
Betterridge fled Cambodia to Australia just days before he was sentenced in 2003 but was rearrested and has spent nearly four years fighting his extradition from a Brisbane jail.
In a brief email, Betterridge's mother Lola Betterridge said she was ecstatic about her son's release but that the battle was not over yet while Lauwaert remained in prison in Cambodia.
'My heart goes out to Laura (Lauwaert's mother) and Bart; we can't stop fighting for them,' she wrote.
The people of Touk Veal commune, where all the girls and women who accused the pair live, welcomed the news of Betterridge's release.
'When we first brought the charges, I was angry and I wanted money. Now I am just happy for Clinton and I wish Bart to be free and with his family too,' Nuon Sokhom, 22, a housemaid who originally accused Betterridge of forcing her to have oral sex but has since withdrawn her claims, said by telephone.
Nine young women and eight family members responded to warrants from the court to appear at the Appeals Court last week.
All retracted earlier accusations of sexual abuse, claiming the controversial Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC) had coerced their original testimonies from them with a mixture of threats and offers of financial compensation and they had lied at the initial hearing in Siem Reap Provincial Court.
However in handing down his verdict Friday, judge Saly Theary said he found the change of heart of the witnesses implausible and did not find their retractions adequate reason to change the original 10- and 20- year sentences handed down for the Australians in the initial testimony-based trial in Siem Reap.
CWCC chief Oung Chanthol has strenuously denied accusations of flawed methods by her organization to gain high-profile convictions since it first came under fire in a March 2004 article in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
In that article, senior CWCC officials admitted they 'educated' witnesses on testimony while holding them in detention, sometimes without their parents' consent, and gave gifts to investigating police. Chanthol was not available for comment Saturday.
From his prison cell in Phnom Penh, Lauwaert welcomed the news of Betterridge's release and said he hoped it would go some way to helping him beat the charges when he appeals to the Supreme Court.
'There is no evidence against me. The girls have all admitted they were tricked into lying for money. I am very, very happy for Clint and all I can do is wonder why I am still here,' Lauwaert said.
Phnom Penh (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) - Senior Cambodian justice officials were tight-lipped Saturday over the decision by the Australian government not to extradite an accused sex offender due to concerns over Cambodia's ability to provide a fair trial.
Australian English teacher Clinton Rex Betterridge, 39, who was convicted of paedophilia in Cambodia in absentia in January 2003, walked free from a Queensland jail last night after the Australian government announced its decision he could be tortured and denied natural justice if extradited to Cambodia to serve a 10 year jail term.
Ang Vong Vathana, a secretary for the Cambodian justice minister, said Saturday that the minister was in France and could not comment until next week. The chief of the Cambodian Prosecutors Department, Pinn Panyavuth, also declined comment.
The Australian government's decision to release Betterridge came the same day as the Phnom Penh Appeals Court upheld his sentence despite all the females recanting their testimonies against Betterridge and a second Australian national, his former flatmate Bart Lauwaert, 38, who is currently serving 20 years.
Betterridge fled Cambodia to Australia just days before he was sentenced in 2003 but was rearrested and has spent nearly four years fighting his extradition from a Brisbane jail.
In a brief email, Betterridge's mother Lola Betterridge said she was ecstatic about her son's release but that the battle was not over yet while Lauwaert remained in prison in Cambodia.
'My heart goes out to Laura (Lauwaert's mother) and Bart; we can't stop fighting for them,' she wrote.
The people of Touk Veal commune, where all the girls and women who accused the pair live, welcomed the news of Betterridge's release.
'When we first brought the charges, I was angry and I wanted money. Now I am just happy for Clinton and I wish Bart to be free and with his family too,' Nuon Sokhom, 22, a housemaid who originally accused Betterridge of forcing her to have oral sex but has since withdrawn her claims, said by telephone.
Nine young women and eight family members responded to warrants from the court to appear at the Appeals Court last week.
All retracted earlier accusations of sexual abuse, claiming the controversial Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC) had coerced their original testimonies from them with a mixture of threats and offers of financial compensation and they had lied at the initial hearing in Siem Reap Provincial Court.
However in handing down his verdict Friday, judge Saly Theary said he found the change of heart of the witnesses implausible and did not find their retractions adequate reason to change the original 10- and 20- year sentences handed down for the Australians in the initial testimony-based trial in Siem Reap.
CWCC chief Oung Chanthol has strenuously denied accusations of flawed methods by her organization to gain high-profile convictions since it first came under fire in a March 2004 article in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
In that article, senior CWCC officials admitted they 'educated' witnesses on testimony while holding them in detention, sometimes without their parents' consent, and gave gifts to investigating police. Chanthol was not available for comment Saturday.
From his prison cell in Phnom Penh, Lauwaert welcomed the news of Betterridge's release and said he hoped it would go some way to helping him beat the charges when he appeals to the Supreme Court.
'There is no evidence against me. The girls have all admitted they were tricked into lying for money. I am very, very happy for Clint and all I can do is wonder why I am still here,' Lauwaert said.
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