Monks on trial for drugs, death threats, women's knickers...

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Anchor Moy
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Monks on trial for drugs, death threats, women's knickers...

Post by Anchor Moy »

...Dav Tep and Chea Vanda were arrested and defrocked on August 1 after police searched their lodgings in a Por Sen Chey district pagoda and claimed to discover women’s underwear, weapons, condoms and drugs.

At the time, district governor Hem Darith said the search had been triggered by allegations that Tep and Vanda had made death threats against a student then staying at the pagoda.

However, the student, who requested anonymity, told the Post a day after the arrests that authorities had forced him to sign his complaint against the monks and that he had asked to withdraw it when he saw the pair defrocked.
... “Everything is based on the police report. The court did not do further investigation. So, it could be an invented report from the police. I think the intention is to discourage monks from getting involved in social work,” said Chuon. “It is just to break the spirit of Khmer Kampuchea Krom.”
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/k ... beat-court

Original article on their arrest in August 2015:
Items listed in the police report include a sword, a knife, a wooden stick, three mobile phones, a lottery ticket, women’s underwear, condoms and a substance police believed to be narcotics.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/m ... kers-drugs
:shock:Not sure which of these objects is most likely to convict ? The knickers, the lottery ticket ?
Anchor Moy
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Re: Monks on trial for drugs, death threats, women's knickers...

Post by Anchor Moy »

Surprise, they were found guilty:
Two defrocked monks were handed prison sentences at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday, with one of them found guilty of drug possession and making a death threat and the other of using fake documents and improperly wearing monks’ robes...

The monks have staunchly proclaimed their innocence and insisted at the time of their arrest that they were framed in retaliation for their political activism on behalf of the opposition CNRP, including participating in protests along the Vietnamese border over alleged encroachment by Cambodia’s eastern neighbor.
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acti ... at-110771/

I am disappointed that the possession of women's underwear didn't play a bigger role in the charges. Perhaps it was part of the evidence of "improperly wearing monks' robes" ?
No wonder the prisons are overflowing.
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Re: Monks on trial for drugs, death threats, women's knickers...

Post by bolueeleh »

impersonating monks is a big deal in buddhism centric countries, hence the sentence albiet it might be politically motivated as well, but what is not politically motivated now in this country?
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