CEOCambodiaNews wrote:The family of the French girl that was brutally murdered in Kampot while on holiday back in April 2013 speaks out. They are calling for the continued investigation into the case and for the real murderer to be arrested.

If you recall, shortly after the murder they arrested the former guesthouse owner from Belguim, Ollie, with little to no evidence against him. He was kept in jail for over a year with no trial. He was released on bail earlier this year and fled Cambodia.

The family of the French victim held a little press conference at the FCC (Foreign Correspondents' Club) in Phnom Penh to put pressure on both the French embassy and Cambodian authorities to solve this case.





It was Chinese new year,so early Feb,not April,FYI.

Here are some past articles about the case to refreshen your memory:



Late evening view of the Kampong bay Estuary, known locally as the Kampot river. Photograph: Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post
A French woman in her mid-twenties who was vacationing with two friends at a tranquil riverside resort in Kampot province was found dead yesterday – naked and bludgeoned on the head – local police said.

In Chiva, deputy police commissioner in Kampot, told the Post that the woman’s body was discovered at about noon floating in the Kampong Bay estuary that runs through the town.

She was found some five kilometres from the Les Manguiers resort, which she and her friends had planned on checking out of yesterday following a week’s holiday.

Found without her clothes, the woman had marks on one wrist and had been bludgeoned on the forehead, according to Chiva, who believes she was murdered. Authorities are investigating, but there are no suspects yet.

“We do not know clearly yet what happened to her,” Chiva said, adding that she was taken from Kampot to Calmette hospital in Phnom Penh after an initial examination from the police and doctors. Her friends, also from France, accompanied the body.

A local police officer who asked not to be named but was at the site where the body was discovered, told the Post her skull was badly damaged.

The woman and her friends checked in at Les Manguiers on February 4, said Touch Samphea, a manager of the French-style guesthouse. She was last seen at about 4:30pm on Saturday as she rode away on a hotel bicycle.

Samphea said the woman’s friends and staff at the guesthouse reported her missing to police at about 9am yesterday, and staff members helped search for her in town and by boat.

“She normally went out with her friends in the daytime, and in the evening and at night-time they normally stayed at the guesthouse,” she said. “We feel regret for her death; she was nice and friendly.”

Samphea said the woman and her friends had planned to return to France on Thursday after staying in the country for more than a month.

She said that police came to the guesthouse to investigate but, as of yesterday evening, there were no clues.

A spokesman for the French Embassy said.....

...click link to continue reading...

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/y ... ead-kampot





The lawyer and brother of a Belgian national who was charged last week with the murder of a French woman in Kampot province have called on the French government to release the results of DNA evidence that could lead to his exoneration.

Olivier Van den Bogaert, 40, was arrested and charged Friday with the murder of 25-year-old tourist Ophelie Begnis more than two months after her body was found naked, with wounds sustained to her arms and head, on the riverbank in Kampot City on February 10.

French Embassy officials examined the body at Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital soon after her death, and a team of French police, including forensic scientists, visited Kampot province in March to investigate the case following a complaint filed by the family of Ophelie Begnis to the French government.

Ian Van den Bogaert, the young­er brother of the suspect, said that all doubt of his brother’s innocence would be erased if the French government were to release forensic results he claimed had been carried out by investigators.

“The easiest way to find the truth is to compare the DNA,” Mr. Van den Bogaert said by telephone yesterday from Belgium. “It would be important to Ophelie’s family, as well as to us. The French should take responsibility and show the DNA results.”

Nicolas Baudouin, the French Embassy’s first secretary, declined to give comment on the ongoing investigation.

J.B. van Melckebeke, the lawyer for the Van den Bogaert family in Belgium, said he has been in close contact with the suspect’s lawyer in Cambodia and had found that the investigation was full of “contradictions.” For example, Olivier had no plans to flee Cambodia, and had entered into a business partnership with another Belgian man, Gunther Van den Bogaert—who is of no relation—for another guesthouse in Kampot.

“He is not a fugitive; he is not acting like a fugitive,” Mr. Van Melckebeke said.

Mr. Van Melckebeke added that an impartial and certified translator was not present when the police questioned Olivier last week when he was arrested, and the provincial prosecutor had begun questioning him on Friday before his lawyer arrived.

Meas Rin, 34, a Kampot City tour guide, confirmed Tuesday that he had “volunteered” to help with translating for Mr. Van den Bogaert.

Olivier’s business partner, Gunther, confirmed that.....

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http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/b ... nce-21103/





An investigation by French police into the murder of a 25-year-old French tourist in Kampot province in February has failed to produce any DNA evidence that could identify her killer, an Interior Ministry official said Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Mok Chito, who heads the National Judicial Police department, said that he had received the DNA report from French Embassy officials two weeks ago but that it was inconclusive.

Ophelie Begnis’ naked corpse was found floating near a riverbank in Kampot City on February 10 with wounds to her arms and head. She was last seen leaving her guesthouse on a bicycle the day before her body was discovered.

In March, a team of French police, including forensic scientists, visited Kampot province to investigate the case and gather DNA samples following a complaint filed by the family of Ophelie Begnis to the French government.

So far, local police have only named one suspect, 40-year-old Belgian national Olivier van den Bogaert. Mr. van den Bogaert was arrested in April and charged with the murder after he was allegedly seen by witnesses dumping the bicycle at a durian plantation a few kilometers away from where the body was found.

“There was no DNA that matched the suspects’,” Lt. Gen. Chito said. “[The DNA evidence] might have disappeared with the water.”

He added that the DNA report was flawed and unclear, and was therefore “not usable.”

“Right now, the DNA isn’t the important thing. The important things are the evidence and the witnesses,” he said, declining to comment further.

Mr. van den Bogaert’s lawyer, Khun Sophal, said he had not received the DNA report, and was still working on getting bail for his client, who is currently being detained at the Kampot provincial prison.

Investigating Judge Hong Sokun Vathana confirmed that the court had received the DNA report and had sent it to be translated.

“But I haven’t seen the Khmer version yet,” Judge Sokun Vathana said, adding that he was still questioning.....

...click link to continue reading...

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/d ... der-36417/





A Belgian man who was released on bail from Kampot Provincial Prison after spending a year detained as the chief suspect in the murder of a French tourist said on Monday that he had returned to his home country.

Olivier van den Bogaert, 41, was arrested in April 2013, about 10 weeks after the body of 25-year-old Ophelie Begnis washed up on the bank of the Kampot River.

On Monday night, despite the ongoing investigation into the murder of Ophelie Begnis, Mr. van den Bogaert said via email that he was back in Belgium.

The murder suspect declined to say how he had managed to leave the country.

Police and court officials said Tuesday that authorities had possession of Mr. van den Bogaert’s passport, but none could agree on exactly which authorities had it.

Appeal Court Judge Khun Leang Meng, who in April ordered Mr. van den Bogaert’s release due to a lack of evidence, said the Kampot Provincial Court was responsible for keeping the passport.

“The investigating judge confiscated [Mr. van den Bogaert’s passport] already,” Judge Leang Meng said, before hanging up on a reporter.

Kampot Provincial Court Investigating Judge Hang Sokun Vathana said the court prosecutor had confiscated the suspect’s travel document.

“The prosecutor confiscated [the passport] already,” Judge Sokun Vathana said, declining to elaborate on what he said was “a secret court investigation.”

However, Ek Chheng Huot, the provincial prosecutor, said he did not know about Mr. van den Bogaert’s case, and referred all questions back to the Appeal Court.

Kampot police said last week that they had no evidence against Mr. van den Bogaert and that they were still searching for a red-haired foreigner in connection with the case, but declined to give further details.

Nicolas Baudouin, first secretary at the French Embassy, said that.....

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http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/b ... ail-63581/

frank lee bent wrote:the kampot kops are a marvel of incompetence.