The Supreme Court reprimanded the Appeals Court on Wednesday for granting bail to Australian sex-crimes offender Clint Betterridge, 35, who fled Cambodia just weeks before being found guilty of debauchery by a Siem Reap court, which sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
The Supreme Court also reversed the Appeal Court’s bail ruling, a move that could put Betterridge in line to become the first Australian ever extradited to Cambodia to serve a jail sentence.
“The Appeals Court order to temporarily release [Betterridge], stating there was a lack of evidence despite him being under investigation, was a serious mistake to the law,” Presiding Supreme Court Judge Khim Pon told the courtroom.
“Seeing that the accused had no fixed residence, employment and did not pay money for his bail, this man was able to escape from the country and did not show up for his trial,” Khim Pon said.
“The Jan 8, 2003 decision of the Appeals Court is illegitimate and has no jurisdiction, so the Supreme Court has decided to annul it,” Khim Pon said.
The Supreme Court judge also ordered the immediate rearrest of Betterridge and his detention in prison.
Released on bail despite facing serious sex abuse charges, Betterridge left Cambodia after an administrative loophole at the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh allowed him to replace his confiscated passport with a new one.
The issuance of the new passport and Betterridge’s flight from Cambodia caused an international uproar, forcing the Australian government to send a high-level delegation from Canberra to investigate the incident.
Betterridge’s co-defendant, Australian national Bart “Lucky” Lauwaert, was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the trial that found both men guilty of debauchery and of sexually abusing eight young women and girls in Siem Reap town.
The eight were employed as maids in Betterridge’s and Lauwaert’s homes and were allegedly coerced with money to perform sexual acts for their foreign employers.
While Lauwaert is currently serving his hefty sentence in Siem Reap Provincial Prison, Betterridge was sentenced in absentia.
He is now believed to be back in Australia.
Betterridge’s lawyer Dy Borima—who fought for his release by the Appeals Court—did not attend the Supreme Court hearing.
Dy Borima could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Representing Betterridge’s defense at the Supreme Court, lawyer Hem Von said his client did not force the young girls to have sex and they had accepted payment from the Australian for their services.
Australian Ambassador Louise Hand said after the trial that she could not comment on Betterridge’s possible extradition back to Cambodia as the case was “under discussion”.
But Phnom Penh and Canberra do have a legal framework in place that could allow extradition, Hand said.
“The Australian and Cambodian governments are both strongly committed to stamping out child sex tourism,” she said.
“There have been recent passage of regulations…which enable [an] extradition relationship between Cambodia and Australia which will manage cases of this kind,” she added.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in February he was determined to see Betterridge sent back to jail in Cambodia.
“We will be doing what we can with the Cambodian authorities to try to solve this problem,” Downer was reported as saying by Agence France-Presse.
“My ambition is to get him back to Cambodia and to get him to serve his sentence there. The more we have looked at this, the more I have become confident we might have a solution to this problem,” Downer said.
Despite the Betterridge debacle, the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh has made efforts to stem human trafficking and to stop Australian nationals from engaging in child-sex tourism in Cambodia.
An Australian Federal Police liaison office was opened in Phnom Penh in July last year as part of Canberra’s efforts to tackle both activities in Cambodia.
