A high-ranking Cambodian police official has been sacked over sexual misconduct at work in a landmark case in the Southeast Asian nation but will not be prosecution to “protect the dignity” of the women involved, a police official said. Two-star general and Kampong Thom provincial police chief Ouk Kosal was suspended last month pending an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct made by four junior female officers that hit the headlines.
In a rare public outing of sexual misconduct by an official, he was accused of forcing the female officers to perform sex acts at work under the threat of blocking their careers. A deputy national police chief Pen Vibol, who led the investigation, said Kosal had been sacked and would be demoted to the rank of colonel.
But he said the female officers had chosen to not press criminal charges of sexual assault, which is punishable by up to three years jail, prompting calls for the government to do so. “This is an unprecedented case where, instead of asking our female police officers to be cautious, we need to strengthen the ethics among leaders of our police units,” Vibol told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
