Two government employees remain at large despite an order issued by the Municipal Court in January to question them for their alleged link to the return of underage sex workers to a brothel, according to a court official.
Court Prosecutor Ngeth Sarath said Thursday that he issued summonses for one employee at the municipality’s department of social affairs and one at the Ministry of Health. He said documents have been passed on to Municipal Police for action but the two suspects have not been located, he said.
According to Ngeth Sarath, the suspects were Kam Phalla of the municipality’s social affairs department and Chea Saroeun of the Ministry of Health.
The two men are suspected of taking money in May to move seven girls from a Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights safe house to the Svay Pak brothel district, some 11 km north of the capital. The sex workers had been rescued by the center’s staff.
Yim Po, the director of the center for children’s rights, admitted that one of the center’s staff was apparently involved in the release. But Noun Veasna, program assistant at the center, said Thursday that the center employee apparently involved in the release scam has not been called in by the court because there was little evidence. But she was forced to resign last year, he said.
