Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court on Monday released a 61-year-old Danish businessman and his Khmer ex-girlfriend eight months after provisionally detaining them in provincial prison on charges that the woman sold the man her 13-year-old daughter for sex, court officials said yesterday.
According to provincial prosecutor So Vath, Jorgen Kenneth Hansen and Sam Veasna were released because the provincial health department officials who examined the girl in November found only minor injuries to the victim’s vagina.
“She was just frightened when she was asked by the police if she was raped, so she confessed to having sex with the man 50 times,” said Mr Vath, adding that the girl later said she’d slept with a 12-year-old boy.
Provincial anti-human trafficking police chief Sith Luos said yesterday that he still believed that Mr Hansen had offered money to Ms Veasna in exchange for sex with her underage daughter.
“The victim’s mother offered her daughter to the foreigner for sex because she was poor,” Mr Luos said.
Michael Juul Eriksen, Mr Hansen’s legal representative in Denmark, said by phone that his client had last contacted him from Bangkok on Tuesday.
“I don’t know where he’ll go next, and I guess he could be going back to Cambodia,” said Mr Eriksen.
Tom Hansen, head of representation for the Danish embassy, said yesterday that the embassy played no role in securing Mr Hansen’s release.
“We were surprised to hear the news,” said Mr Hansen.
