‘Disgraced’ US Sisters Deported for Bare-Bottomed Temple Shoot

Two American sisters were deported from Cambodia on Saturday after the pair was literally caught with their pants down on Friday by guards at Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap City, who found them taking photos of each other’s bare buttocks at an Angkorian temple, officials said Sunday.

Their deportation came just a week after three French tourists were kicked out of the country for “exposure of sexual organs” at the Angkor park’s Banteay Kdei temple and less than two weeks after authorities vowed to investigate a series of photos showing a woman posing topless at the park.

Lindsay Adams, 22, and her sister Leslie, 20, were arrested at the Preah Khan temple at about 10 a.m. Friday, shortly after security guards caught them snapping photos of each other’s exposed bottoms, according to Long Kosal, deputy director of communications at the Apsara Authority, the government body that manages the park.

On Saturday, he said, the sisters were summarily tried and convicted on pornography and indecency charges by the Siem Reap Provincial Court, which handed them six-month suspended sentences and deported the pair to Thailand through the Poipet international checkpoint.

“Like the three Frenchmen that were sentenced previously, the court sentenced the two Americans to six months in prison…fined them one million riel [about $250] and banned them from entering Cambodia for four years,” he said.

Mr. Kosal said the Adams sisters were also made to write statements acknowledging their guilt.

“They accepted that they disgraced themselves, knowing the temples, for Cambodians, mean more than anything else,” he said.

In light of the recent cases of tourists exposing themselves at the Angkor park, Mr. Kosal said the Apsara Authority would take measures to better police the temples.

“We have to acknowledge the park is so huge and the [size] of temples is also very huge. Therefore, we need to intensify the patrol[s] to prevent these kind[s] of pictures,” he said.

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