Claudio Bussolino espatriato in Cambogia

“I vostri pedofili teneteveli a casa”

Questo è quanto mi ha detto, non molto tempo fa, un conoscente cambogiano con cui parlavo della iniziativa presa già da alcuni anni dal Ministero degli Interni cambogiano di distribuire agli arrivi in aereoporto e ai posti di frontiera dei volantini su cui è scritto Respectez nos enfants oppure Please respect our children e si rammenta che la pedofilia è un reato punibile con pesanti pene e il colpevole è perseguibile anche nel proprio paese di origine. Lo stesso fermo ammonimento è ripetuto sulle mappe turistiche, su varie pubblicazioni e su grandi cartelloni posti sulle strade. Il Parlamento ha recentemente approvato un nuovo testo di legge che dettagliatamente sanziona ogni forma di abuso sui minori. Chi e cosa ha creato questa emergenza ? In Cambogia è inconcepibile l'idea di picchiare o maltrattare un bambino: in tanti anni che vivo qui mai ho visto un adulto fare come facevano le nostre mamme e dare un ceffone a un bimbo, anche se questo strillava e “faceva i capricci” senza apparente ragione. L'idea quindi di una violenza sessuale è inimmaginabile. Questo però è un paese povero, molto povero, dove la “capacità di acquisto” dello straniero supera i limiti dell'immaginabile e purtroppo per molti individui è stato facile acquistarsi i loro lerci piaceri. Una fondamentale legge di mercato dice che è la domanda che genera l'offerta, non è mai l'offerta che crea la domanda. La domanda, di regola, si indirizza là dove le voci correnti fanno presumere che sia possibile trovare la “merce” più facilmente e a prezzo più conveniente. Navigando su Internet e digitando “sexual exploit children” si scopre una pletora di siti che con toni allarmati denunciano le pratiche pedofile in atto in Cambogia. Bisogna quindi interrogarsi sulle pesanti responsabilità di quegli “umanitari”, senza mestiere e senza dimora, che da anni, invece di collaborare con le autorità di polizia, come viene costantemente richiesto, segnalando i casi di abusi sessuali su minori ai numeri telefonici pubblicizzati ovunque, continuano a starnazzare sui media di tutto il mondo “denunciando” gli orrori sessuali commessi in Cambogia. Hanno anche creato delle organizzazioni, sempre molto “umanitarie”, con cui comunque provvedono principalmente a mantenere se stessi e poi giustificano la loro esistenza con la presunta azione di monitoraggio e denuncia che svolgono. La responsabilità di coloro che così agiscono è gravissima perchè hanno contribuito a costruire la falsa immagine di un paese in cui tutto, anche la più perversa fra le depravazione è tollerata. Non e vero, e bene lo sanno alcuni nostri connazionali che con una quarantina di altri stranieri stanno meditando nelle galere cambogiane sulla severità del codice penale locale. Si è però in questo modo diffusa in molti angoli del mondo la falsa convinzione che la Cambogia sia il paese in cui ogni pedofilo può venire per acquistare, quasi agli angoli delle strade, l'oggetto delle sue distorte passioni.

Questa è una battaglia che si può e si deve vincere assumendo un atteggiamento responsabile: ascoltiamo l'invito delle autorità di polizia a essere attenti a quanto accade sotto i nostri occhi, evitiamo di improvvisarci “giustizieri”, non urliamo allo scandalo ma prendiamo un telefono e componiamo i numeri di telefono della Polizia di Stato e, a voce forte e chiara, segnaliamo ciò che ci insospettisce. Il numero di telefono è: 023.997919.

Giustizia cambogiana

Senza molto strepito mediatico ma grazie alla collaborazione dei cittadini sono molti i pedofili o procacciatori che sono stati arrestati o sottoposti a giudizio. E' sufficiente scorrere le note di agenzia per constatare le condanne inflitte a quei pedofili che pensano di trovare in Cambogia facile sfogo alle loro libidini ma quando sono scoperti la pena è certa, le condanne sono pesanti e le galere cambogiane non sono ameni luoghi di soggiorno soprattutto per chi è colpevole di tale odioso reato. Questi sono i casi registrati nel breve periodo che va dal dicembre 2009 al febbraio 2010

Frenchman re-arrested on child sex allegations

07 December 2009

A French national has been arrested and charged with abusing underage boys for the second time in three months, court and police officials said Sunday.
Jean-Marie Beranger, 61, was arrested last Friday in Kampot province and charged with purchasing child prostitution. If he is convicted, the charge carries a prison sentence of between five and 15 years.
The new allegations concern eight boys between the ages of 12 and 14 in Phnom Penh and Kampot province said Keo Thea, a police chief of Phnom Penh Anti-human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Bureau, who led the operation.

Israeli charged in child sex case

18 December 2009

An Israeli man will be sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Court to be charged with purchasing two child prostitutes, Bith Kimhong, director of the Anti-human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department, said Thursday. The 69-year-old was arrested on Wednesday during a police raid at a hotel in the Daun Penh district. The man is suspected of having sex up to 10 times with two girls, both thought to be aged under 15 years.

Child sex case: Woman, 26, accused of soliciting sex

23 December 2009

A 26-year-old woman is in pre-trial detention in Battambang province after being charged with soliciting child sex for clients, court officials said Tuesday. Moeun Socheata was arrested during a police raid on Thursday in Battambang’s Svay Por commune as she was arranging for men to have sex with two girls – ages 14 and 17 – at a local guesthouse. Complaints were lodged by the victims’ parents on December 15. Police said she confessed to having arranged for sex with underage girls for several years. “I charged her on Sunday, December 20, with soliciting child prostitution,” Kheuv Phalla, a Battambang court prosecutor, said. Born Vannara, deputy chief of Battambang’s anti-human trafficking bureau, said the suspect was believed to be involved in arranging underage sex for clients in Phnom Penh and Battambang, but that police were unable to arrest her due to insufficient evidence and a lack of cooperation from the victims. “Just recently we received two complaints from the victims’ parents [asking] to arrest her,” he said. If guilty, Mouen Socheata faces five to 10 years in prison.

One year jail term for pedophile Briton in Cambodia

25 December 2009

A Cambodian court on Friday sentenced a British man to one year in prison for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. Judge Ke Sakhan of Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted 51-year-old Gareth Ashley Corbett, arrested in the popular seaside town of Sihanoukville in July, of committing indecent acts. He handed Corbett the one-year jail term and ordered him to pay a 1,000-dollar fine. Corbett was arrested after the underage girl, who was also allegedly abused by a US man, told authorities that the Briton had sex with her.

A trial date for the US man, Scott Alan Hecker, 44, has not yet been set, court officials said. Hecker was arrested for allegedly abusing the 12-year-old girl and another 14-year-old girl.

Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.

Two sentenced in child-sex cases

28 December 2009

Two Cambodian-Vietnamese men were sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison related to the purchase of several underage girls in 2007 and 2008.
Ho Nguy, 26, was arrested in Phnom Penh in February following the arrest a week earlier of American Ronald Gerud, who has since been sent to the US. Chhun Voan, 29, is still at large and was sentenced in absentia.
While Samleang Seila welcomed the decision, Ho Nguy’s defence lawyer Dun Vibol said his client had already asked to appeal. “It is very unjust, as he is innocent,” he said.

Jailed for rape

6 JANUARY 2010

A Cambodian prison official says a former Wellington man jailed for rape will not die behind bars despite fears for his health from his supporters. Prey Sar prison director Mong Kim Heng told that Graham Cleghorn "is strong and healthy, and I see him almost every day in prison, he can run better than you".

Cleghorn, 57, is serving a 20-year term in the Phnom Penh jail, for raping five of his employees - aged between 14 and 19 - in Siem Reap. Cleghorn, a former temple tourist guide, faces the prospect of an extra 10 years being added to his sentence because he is unable to pay reparations to his victims. He was jailed for 20 years in 2004 and the judge said he would serve an additional two years for each victim if he failed to pay $US2000 to each girl's family.

The Cambodian Court of Appeal has rejected two appeals by Cleghorn since then.

French alleged paedophile testifies

14 JANUARY

Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday heard the case of a 60-year-old Frenchman charged with soliciting sex with a 16-year-old Cambodian girl and producing and possessing pornography. Claude Jean-Pierre Demeret was arrested August 20 in Boeung Kok district. Police searched the room of the guesthouse where Demeret was staying and found children’s underwear and toys, as well as dozens of explicit photographs of himself. Demeret told the court he had not had intercourse with the victim, but admitted to having the victim perform a sex act on him. Demeret’s defence lawyer argued that the accused was the victim of entrapment on the part of police and a local NGO. Presiding Judge Chan Madina seemed to accept that argument, accusing the plaintiff of having been involved in similar schemes with four other foreigners in recent years. The victim’s lawyer, Peng Maneth, from the child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, denied the entrapment charge. A verdict will be handed down on January 26.

U.S. Man in Cambodia Arrested on Child Porn Charge

19 JANUARY

Cambodian police said Monday they have arrested an American man on charges that he drugged a 12-year-old girl and took pornographic photos of her.

Chor Heng, deputy police chief of Preah Sihanouk province, said Ronald A. Adams, 51, was arrested at his home Friday after a complaint from the girl's mother. Provincial prosecutor You Tith Vattanak said Adams was charged Sunday with illegal drug use and possession of child pornography, and could face rape charges if medical tests confirm he physically abused the girl. He could be jailed for at least 10 years on the initial charges, he said.

Police said Adams has lived in the seaside province, about 185 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, for at least two years and operates a small restaurant there. His passport says he is from New York, police say. The suspect, who was being held in the provincial jail, was unavailable for comment.

Cambodia jails Swede for sex with adopted son

20 JANUARY

A Cambodian court has sentenced a Swedish man to six-and-a-half years in prison for having sex with three underaged boys, including his adopted son.

Judge Chhay Kong says Johan Brahim Escori, 62, was convicted on Tuesday on charges of illegal sexual intercourse with his nine-year-old adopted son and indecent acts with two other boys. He also ordered Escori to pay a four million riel ($1040) fine and be expelled from Cambodia after serving his sentence.

Lax law enforcement and poverty have made Cambodia a prime destination for foreigners seeking sex with minors. But police working with social activists have stepped up efforts to fight the crime, and several foreigners are serving lengthy prison terms.

Norwegian accused of sexually abusing boy

22 JANUARY

A 64-year-old Norwegian man suspected of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy was arrested Wednesday and will be sent to provincial court where he is expected to be charged with purchasing child prostitution. The man was arrested in Siem Reap town’s Sala Kamroek commune after police put under suveillance a guesthouse that he frequented.
Sun Bunthorn, chief of the province’s Anti-Child Trafficking Bureau, told that his team had been investigating the suspect for several months, after seeing him entering the guest house with a young boy several times. The youth was questioned after emerging from the guesthouse and told officers he had been paid US$ 40 for performing oral sex and other sexual acts on the man. Sun Bunthorn said the man had not confessed, but that he had admitted to giving the boy money.
Police are looking for other victims, adding that authorities believe more boys have been abused by this man.

Cambodia police bust paedophile ring

24 JANUARY

Taxi driver Mey Sovann, 36, and his female accomplice Sek Vy, 47, were arrested for providing underage girls for sexual services, said Bith Kimhong, head of Cambodia's anti-human trafficking unit. A six-month investigation, aided by the French Police's International Technical Co-operation Delegation, found that since 2003, Mey Sovann had advertised underage virgin girls on the Internet for $US3,000 a night.

He would pick up customers from Phnom Penh airport and show them pictures, before taking them to meet the girls at a guesthouse owned by Sek Vy. Mey Sovann was arrested by undercover police at the airport in possession of the underage girls' photographs, while Sek Vy was arrested at her guesthouse.

American Carl Craig Thomas, 58, was also arrested on Saturday in the capital for sexually abusing three underage girls provided by the Cambodian pair, and for child pornography pictures he took at the guesthouse.

Cambodian court convicts US sex offender again

28 JANUARY

An American man already serving a 10-year prison term in Cambodia for sexually abusing a teenage girl was sentenced to three more years in a separate case. Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Michael James Dodd of Washington, D.C., guilty of soliciting sex from a 15-year-old girl before he was incarcerated and handed him the new sentence.

Last August, the same court sentenced Dodd to 10 years in prison and ordered him to pay 20 million riel ($4,878) in compensation to a 14-year-old girl after finding him guilty of soliciting sex from her. The Court has ordered Dodd expelled from the country after he completes his prison sentences.

Cambodia has long been a magnet for foreign pedophiles because of poverty and corruption in law enforcement. But the country's police and courts have stepped up action against sex offenders in recent years.

Florida's Department of Law Enforcement lists the 60-year-old Dodd on its Web site as a sex offender and says he was convicted in July 2002 of sexual abuse of a child.

American jailed for sex abuse

3 FEBRUARY

A Cambodian court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced an American man to one year in prison for sexually abusing a teenage girl. Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Harvey Alexander Johnson, 57, guilty of committing indecent acts with a 13-year girl. The court also ordered him to pay US$3,000 in compensation to the victim's parents and another four million riel in fines.

Johnson, a private English teacher in the capital of Phnom Penh, was arrested in August in his rented house after police received complaints from the girl accusing him of sexual abuse. Judge Chhay Kong ordered Johnson, from Texas, expelled from the country after he completes his prison sentence.

The same court last on Thursday sentenced another American man, Michael James Dodd of Washington, DC, who is already serving a 10-year prison term for sexually abusing a teenage girl, to three more years in a separate case.

FBI: Alleged sex tourist taught in Cambodia

22 FEBRUARY

Los Angeles. A man who taught English in Cambodia was returned to the U.S. Monday to face charges of traveling abroad to have sex with a minor, according to the FBI.

Michael Dodd, 59, was arrested by the Cambodian National Police in October 2008 and convicted in a Cambodian court of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. In January, he was charged in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. According to an affidavit, Dodd admitted to an FBI agent he paid the victim's family $50 every two weeks so that he could visit with and eventually marry the girl.

Dodd taught students between 13 and 45 years old, but he told agents that he was prohibited from teaching school in most places because he had been convicted of sexual abuse in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth.

In Saipan in 2001, he was arrested on charges of inappropriately touching 13 underage female students and pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual abuse. He served time in prison and was required to register as a sex offender. Dodd also admitted to an FBI agent that he has paid to have sexual relations with other children. If convicted, Dodd faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

ATTUALITA' CAMBOGIANE