The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday heard the case against a couple charged with sending about a dozen women to China, supposedly for well-paying jobs, and then having them sold on to men who raped them, the latest in a recent raft of cases involving women being abused in China.
The accused—Net Cheng Ly, 31, and her husband Tao Ye Hong, 35—were arrested in July 2013 after three women who were repatriated from China filed complaints against them.
One of the victims, a 29-year-old, told the court she had been approached by a woman named Ros Sim, who said there were well-paid job opportunities for single women at a Chinese company she worked with. The victim said the accused couple acted as brokers in the deal by paying her family $500 and facilitating her travel to China, where she was sold to a Chinese man, who then sold her on to another man. Both men raped her, she said.
“I was sold from one house to another, like an animal,” she told the court, adding that she is seeking $3,000 in compensation and imprisonment for the pair.
Ms. Cheng Ly denied the accusations, saying that she and her husband were approached by the victims, who wanted to find work.
“I did not sell them—they asked me to find jobs in China for them,” she said.
Mr. Ye Hong denied any knowledge of the sale or sexual abuse of the victims, insisting that he had simply driven the women from the airport to a friend’s house upon their arrival in Shanghai.
If found guilty, the pair faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years each.
Presiding Judge Kor Vandy said a verdict would be handed down on September 14.
In May, four people were arrested and charged in two separate cases of women being trafficked to China.
Last week, the court heard a third case in which a woman is accused of trafficking another woman to China, where she was sold between three brothels.
