By Khy Sovuthy

The Cambodia Daily, March 20-21, 2010

 

Police arrested three foreign nationals on Thursday in Preah Sihanouk Province over allegations of paying children for sex but said they would send only one, dual Australian and New Zealand national Michael John Lines, 53, to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for questioning on Saturday, an official said.

 

Bith Kimhong, chief of the anti-human trafficking police department at the Interior Ministry, said that Mr Lines is accused of having sex with two teenagers, who were 14 and 17 years old when the abuse first started in 2007.

 

Two other men, an American and a New Zealander, arrested with Mr. Lines at a guesthouse in Preah Sihanouk, were released on Friday after questioning, as there was no evidence they were involved in the crimes, Mr. Kimhong said.

 

“Lines will be sent to the court on Saturday morning,” he said.

 

According to the police chief, two young women, aged 17 and 20, who formally lived in Mr. Lines’ house in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov I commune in Meanchey district, alleged that they had sexual relations with him going back to 2007 when they were 14 and 17 years old.

 

Mr. Kimhon alleged that the suspect has previously been engaged to the now-20-year-old woman and that he had had sex with other young girls on the pretext of being engaged with a view to one day marrying them.

 

“Michael had sex with many minor girls through engagements,” the police chief alleged.

 

Mr. Lines’ lawyer Dun Vibol complained Friday that police had not given him a copy of a statement allegedly made by his client and that he was not present during the interrogation. “So I really don’t know what the case is against my client,” he added.

 

Samleang Seila, director of the anti-pedophile organization Action Pour Les Enfants, said on Friday that his organization was told of Mr. Line’s many “engagements” to young teenage girls earlier this year, which then sparked an investigation.