Government Official Assaulted Interpreter in Korea: Police
by Ben Paviour and Kuch Naren | June 23, 2016 | អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

Senior Education Ministry official Kry Seang Long was charged with sexually assaulting his interpreter during an official visit to South Korea in late May and released after the Cambodian Embassy intervened and paid more than $12,000 in fines, Cambodian and South Korean officials said on Wednesday.

Mr. Seang Long, who attended the three-day 2016 Asean+3 HRD Forum in Seoul between May 23 and 25, stopped short of admitting to the crime on Wednesday, but said the matter was “already solved.”


Selfie,FB.

On June 2, Korean news website Yes! Top News reported that a 44-year-old Cambodian official was arrested at 10 p.m. on May 26 in Seoul’s Guro-gu district. In an article published on Tuesday, the News1 Korea site stated that the official’s interpreter called police after he forcefully wrapped his arms around her waist and attempted to kiss her. Prosecutors asked that the official be barred from future visits to South Korea, the article said.

According to a June 9 letter sent to the Foreign Affairs Ministry by Long Dimanche, Cambodia’s new ambassador to South Korea, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office agreed to release Mr. Seang Long after the Education Ministry agreed to pay 14.1 million won, or about $12,300, in fines.

“I would like to inform His Excellency [Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn] that on the eve­ning of June 8, 2016, at 17:50 p.m. (Korean time), the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office decided to completely drop the charge and release Kry Seang Long from the Nambu detention center in Seoul,” the letter said.

“But the prosecutor decided to require a 3.6 million won fine; 5 million won in fines for paying the victim; and 5.5 million won as a lawyer’s fee,” it said, adding that “this whole budget was provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport for settling compensation.”

Ministry seeks legal action over Facebook ‘defamation’
Fri, 1 July 2016
Niem Chheng

The Ministry for National Assembly-Senate Relations has called for legal action against a Facebook user who accused its head, Men Sam An, of having an affair with disgraced Education Ministry official Kry Seang Long.

In a press release on Wednesday, the ministry accused the social media figure Chham Chhany, who is believed to be living abroad, of defaming Sam An, a deputy prime minister, with the “unacceptable” post on June 26.

“The cabinet would like to appeal to authorities at all levels to take legal action to find out the identity of the account owner and punish him according to law,” the letter said.

In his post, which included a picture of Sam An, Chhany claimed to have insider information that Sam An and Long were lovers. He also made a joke about Long’s recent fall from grace.

The former senior Education Ministry official was demoted last week after it emerged he had been arrested for sexually assaulting an interpreter while at a conference in South Korea in May...

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron on Wednesday defended the decision not to expel a senior official from the ministry after he was arrested for sexually assaulting his interpreter during a visit to South Korea in May, saying the crime was not serious—“not rape.”

Mr. Seang Long was arrested in Seoul in late May for sexually assaulting his South Korean interpreter after representing Cambodia at the 2016 Asean+3 HRD Forum, South Korean police said in June.

The Education Ministry then paid more than $12,000 in fines and legal fees to secure his release from a detention center in Seoul on June 8, according to a letter from Cambodia’s ambassador to South Korea, Long Dimanche, to Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn.

“I find that it is really appalling because this is a serious act,” Thida Khus, the head of women’s rights group Silaka, said of Mr. Chuon Naron’s response to the case—and others like it.

“The ministry is responsible for all of these actions, all of these crimes, and if they don’t take it seriously, their officials can continue doing it,” she said.