Cambodian Appeals Court president removed in bribery scandal

Phnom Penh - The president of the Cambodian Appeals Court has been removed from her position after an Interior Ministry investigation found her guilty of accepting bribes, local media reported Monday.

Khmer-language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea and English-language Cambodia Daily quoted Justice Minister Ang Vong Wattana as saying Ly Vuoch Leng had been removed from her position at the head of the court after a request by Prime Minister Hun Sen and himself was granted by King Norodom Sihamoni.

The newspapers quoted Wattana as saying her removal was in relation to the release of two men convicted by a lower court of human trafficking offenses after a raid on a Phnom Penh hotel, the Chai Hour 2, in late 2004.

The men were sentenced to five and four years in jail respectively in February 2006, but the sentences were overturned by the Appeals Court. They were re-arrested in February 2007 for the same offense, prompting an investigation into their prior release.

Leng was subsequently found to have asked for 30,000 dollars in bribes in exchange for their release after an Interior Ministry investigation, according to newspaper reports.

Ang Vong Wattana was unavailable for comment Monday.

Donors have consistently called for judicial reform and controls on endemic corruption in Cambodia, which Paris-based watchdog Transparency International rated as one of the world's more corrupt nations in a recent survey.

The removal of Leng, listed by Who's Who as a member of the royalist Funcinpec party, may reignite controversy over a number of other cases which have passed through the Appeals Court in recent years, according to lawyers.

The family of New Zealand national Graham Cleghorn, whose appeal against a 20-year sentence for rape was upheld by the Appeals Court at its ninth attempt to be heard last month despite his witnesses again failing to be called, said Monday they were reassessing their legal options in light of Leng's removal.

In 2006, an appeal against a 10-year sentence for child sex was upheld against Australian Clinton Rex Betterridge in absentia by the court, despite all complainants recanting at the hearing and claiming they had been offered incentives to make their allegations.

The Australian government released Betterridge from a Queensland jail the same day, saying it had reasonable doubt he could receive justice if extradited to Cambodia.