Alexander Trofimov has built a $300 million tourist resort in Cambodia (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)
PHNOM PENH (AFP)— A Russian paedophile controversially pardoned in
Cambodia's largest-known child sex scandal will be deported after he was
arrested at the home of a teenage girl, police said on Tuesday.
Alexander
Trofimov, who built a $300 million tourist resort in the country, was
arrested at the house of an under-aged girl outside of the capital Phnom
Penh, police spokesman Kirt Chantharith told AFP, adding authorities
will try to deport him shortly.
"Police arrested him yesterday
(Monday)... while he was hiding with a local family," Chantharith said,
adding that the Russian "loved the family's daughter, who is 11 or 12
years old".
"According to policy, we will have to expel him very soon," he added.
Trofimov
was arrested in 2007 facing 17 complaints of sexually abusing minors,
the youngest just six years old, and was jailed for 17 years -- reduced
on appeal to eight years.
But the businessman was controversially
freed early in December last year after receiving a royal pardon from
King Norodom Sihamoni, dismaying child protection campaigners who
demanded his deportation to Russia.
Keo Vanthan, head of
Cambodia's Interpol office, said the Russian is also on the
organisation's most-wanted list for sex offences in his home country and
will be deported.
Welcoming Monday's arrest Seila Samleang,
director of the anti-paedophile group Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE),
said Trofimov's detention can end "his long history" of abuse in
Cambodia.
"We recommend that the Cambodian government honour the
extradition request from Russia, and assist Russia in whatever ways
possible to prosecute Alexander Trofimov," she added.
Trofimov is
chairman of Koh Pos Investment Company, which in 2006 received
permission to build a $300 million resort on Koh Pos, known also as
Snake Island, off Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia.
Dozens of
foreigners have been jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face
trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an
anti-paedophilia push in 2003 in a bid to shake off its reputation as a
haven for child sex offenders.
4 comments:
whos to blame?
Parents for letting this shit happen and not caring.
8:49 AM,
If you're yet a parent shut the hell up!!! Spewing ignorance is not a bliss.
Though extreme poverty and poor law enforcement are primarily to blame for child sex trafficking in Cambodia, I think the Cambodian people's casual attitudes toward sexual predation also contribute to the problem. Cambodians generally look up to foreigners, especially Westerners, as wealthy and benevolent. It's unfortunate that some foreigners are in the country to take advantage of children.
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