Chinese Surrogacy Trafficker Appeals 15 Year Sentence

CEOCambodiaNews · Post by **CEOCambodiaNews** » Tue Jan 03, 2023 11:08 am

Cambodia News (Phnom Penh): On December 30, 2022, the Phnom Penh Supreme Court heard the appeal of Xu Wenjun, a 36-year-old Chinese national convicted of human trafficking in Cambodia in 2017. On July 24, 2019, the Chinese man was arrested in Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkar Moan, Phnom Penh, for using Cambodian surrogate mothers in order to traffic babies to be sold in mainland China.

On August 10, 2020, the convicted man was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the First Instant Court of Phnom Penh on charges of trafficking in human beings, under Article 16 of the Law on suppression of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The convict first filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal but got the same sentence, and he has now filed an appeal to the Cambodian Supreme Court. The appeal is under consideration by the judge, and the final verdict will be pronounced on January 6, 2023.

CEOCambodiaNews · Post by **CEOCambodiaNews** » Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:12 am

UPDATE
January 9, 2023
Top Court upholds verdict in surrogacy case

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction of 15 years in jail for a Chinese man entangled in a surrogacy case that dates back to 2016, and caught the attention of international media then.

Although Cambodia does not have a specific law on surrogacy, it is a criminal offence as per the existing laws in the country.

Presiding Judge Nil Nonn said, “The Supreme Court upholds the punishment meted out to 43-year-old convict Wu Wenjun because the Judges’ Council of the Supreme Court had confirmed him guilty under Article 16 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation shall be punished with imprisonment from 15 to 20 years in prison.”

Judge Nonn said that Wenjun, a Chinese national and former owner of a Chinese-owned garment factory who was living in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, hired a Cambodian woman to bear his child and then ‘smuggled’ the baby to China in 2016.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501216169/ ... gacy-case/