The Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s verdict sentencing 71-year-old French pedophile Jacques Philippe Albertini to seven years in jail for purchasing child prostitution and awarded each of his three young male victims five million riel, or about $1,250, officials said.
“The court has decided to uphold the original sentence,” said Presiding Judge Pol Sam Oeun, who declined to comment further.
Mr. Albertini was convicted in August for sexually abusing three 12-year-old garbage collectors.
It was the latest case for the Frenchman, who has a long history of arrests for sex crimes, beginning in France in 1979 and spreading to Thailand—in 1980, 1981 and 1999—and then Cambodia, where he was previously arrested in 2004 and 2008.
Throughout the case, he has maintained his innocence and his lawyer on Wednesday said he might challenge the decision at the Supreme Court.
“It is unjust for him because there were no witnesses for exculpating him. It has only the children’s testimony,” said Peung Yok Hiep.
