April 6, 2010
SIEM REAP Provincial Court yesterday resumed a trial of 62-year-old Swiss Rudolf Eduard KNUCHEL, accused of abusing two teenage boys, and announced that the verdict will be handed down on April 22.
During yesterday’s hearing session, Knuchel’s lawyer promptly urged the judge to find his client not guilty, stating that one of the two boys testified differently in the court from what he did at the police station after Knuchel’s arrest in August 2009, following his first arrest in 2000 for the alleged abuse of two boys in a separate case, of which the Siem Reap provincial court cleared him of wrong acts, referring to the lack of evidence to charge him with the crime.
According to Knuchel’s defense lawyer, in the police report, the boy testified to have been abused firstly when he visited Knuchel’s house. However, during the hearing the boy testified that he had been assaulted at a later stage than the date. Also, the medical assessment didn’t prove that the two boy suffered sexual abuse, the lawyer added.
Mr. Noun Phanith, attorney-at-law provided by anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, to represent the two boys reacted that it was not surprising to see medical examination as abusers know well how to inflict abuse on children without leaving any evidence.
In his close statement, Mr. Phanith also asked the court officials to convict Mr. Knuchel as maximum as possible and to expel the man from Cambodia.
Mr. Samleang Seila, country director for anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, confirmed that Knuchel had been surveilled for two years prior to his arrest during when he was renting a villa and had been staying with young boys for two years. Mr. Seila added that Knuchel had also been providing support to their families so that they would not bring complaints or testify in court against him. | 
