For the second time in two weeks, Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday delayed starting the trial of an accused international sex trafficker, sparking fears the case could be quietly dropped—rendering moot the testimony of an allegedly trafficked girl.
Tang Kim Min, 35, is being held on charges related to human trafficking. The main witness against him is an under-age Vietnamese girl, who says she survived an intricate network of pimps, brokers and human smugglers—including Tang Kim Min—who hustled her through Cambodia, southern China and eventually to Macau.
“Han,” whose name has been changed to protect her identity, is under the protection of local NGO Afesip, the Agency for Women in Precarious Situations. She fears reprisal by her alleged abductors, but is willing to testify and give details on at least seven members of the smuggling ring, Afesip Regional Coordinator Pierre Legros said.
However, hope is fading Tang Kim Min will ever face trial in a court that is “unfair, corrupted and perhaps influenced by the mafia,” Legros said.
The court has set a new trial date for March 11.
No reason for the postponement was given, but Legros said later his agency was informed that the courts had changed judges.
Calls to court officials in the case went unanswered Tuesday and representatives for Tang Kim Min could not be located.
Vietnamese government spokesman Chu Dong Loc confirmed Wednesday his embassy was observing the case, but declined further comment.
Interviews with Han indicate she was probably trafficked by organized crime syndicates in Vietnam and China, Legros said.
Poked, prodded and “tested” by backdoor doctors, pimps and clients along the way, Han came back to Cambodia and helped Afesip and the police arrest Tang Kim Min, whom she claimed was the prime mover in her abduction, Legros said.
Were Tang Kim Min to see trial, it would be a benchmark moment for the Cambodian courts, Legros said.
On-the-record testimony from Han would highlight the tragic cases of the regions’ poor women, who are tricked, cajoled or abducted in sexual servitude by traffickers, Legros said.
If her testimony holds true, it could also indicate a potential shift in the regional trafficking patterns, officials say.
“It’s difficult now” to traffic women straight from Vietnam to China, said Lourdes Autencio, the local coordinator for return and reintegration at the International Organization of Migration.
“Organized crime syndicates are probably testing the waters” in Cambodia to discover new routes as the old ones have been closed by counter-trafficking agencies, she said.
Cambodia has been a most-favored nation for traffickers. In 1999, more than 600 illegal Chinese were arrested in Phnom Penh on charges they used Cambodia as a smuggling transit point for third countries.
Phnom Penh Governor Chea Sophara was instrumental in a crackdown on that smuggling ring.
He said Tuesday operations by crime syndicates were smaller now than in the past.
The governor said he would be watching Tang Kim Min’s case, but was powerless to influence the courts.
“They must follow 100 percent by the law,” he said. “They must be responsible to the people.”
(Additional reporting by Kay Kimsong)
