A Change of Guard

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Thursday 21 June 2012

Royal pardons ‘undermined’ child sex abuse fight

Alexander Trofimov
Alexander Moritz Watrin
Rene Paul Martin Aubel

Thursday, 21 June 2012 
By David Boyle
Phnom Penh Post

The decision to pardon three pedophiles in December “undermined the credibility of Cambodian efforts to combat child sex tourism”, according to the US State Department’s 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report, released yesterday.

Russian national Alexander Trofimov, also known as Stanislav Molodyakov, German national Alexander Watrin and Dutch national Rene Paul Martin Aubel were granted royal pardons from pedophilia convictions by King Norodom Sihamoni.

Collectively, they had been convicted of committing sex crimes against 27 boys and girls.


“Three convicted foreign pedophiles – one of whom is also a sex-trafficking offender and one of whom was convicted in the largest child sex offender case in Cambodian history [Trofimov] – were pardoned and released early from prison,” the report states.

Ministry of Interior and Department of Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection officials could not be reached yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This useless king can pardoned these sex offenders to molested more children but this king won't care about Bourng Kak children that had been ask him , his mother to help release their innocent parents out of jail.

This useless king/ Cpp are communism,favorite the thugs and thieves not innocent khmers people.

Anonymous said...

If it happen with my family members,i will castrates these monsters....Hey,your majesty king Sihanomy are you happy to see these monster molest your [KHMER'S] Children again?
WHY YOU HAPPY PARDONED THEM????

Anonymous said...

Hun sen is guy who wanted them released, so he asked the King to do so.

Anonymous said...

Yes true. Hun Sen was the one who ordered the release and forced the king to sign the decree. Like the Boeung Kak Lake women, Hun Sen didn't want them released so he warned the king not to pardon them and not to accept the petition from their children asking him to pardon their mothers.

Anonymous said...

Dear Khmerization readers:
Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy the King reign but does not rule, I repeat, does not rule. When the government submits a Kret to the King there are very few, if any, avenues opened to the King to refuse to sign such Krets. Were he to do so, he could cause a constitutional crisis, which would not be helpful to Cambodia or the Cambodian people under current circumstances.

It is important that people understand the difference between reign and rule and that they understand also that His Majesty King Sihamoni has been following his constitutional role as enshrined in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia. That Constitution can be changed only by the will of the Cambodian people through their elected representatives. People in Cambodia should start talking to their elected representatives in the National Assembly is they wish changes to take place in Cambodia.

I, therefore think it is very unfair to abuse or insult King Sihamoni for these "royal pardons" of paedophiles which originated with the Cambodian government and not with the King.


Ambassador Julio A. Jeldres
School of History/Monash Asia Institute
Monash University, Melbourne Australia