The Interior Ministry is working with the Russian Embassy to deport convicted pedophile Stanislav Molodyakov back to his native country following the serial child abuser’s arrest on Monday, a senior police official said yesterday.
“We will deport him to Russia this week or next week…because we won’t allow him to remain here,” said deputy National Police chief Lieutenant General Sok Phal.
If deported to Russia, Molodyakov could be put on trial for the sexual abuse of two 11-year-old girls and a 10-year-old girl. His arrest this week comes less than six months after he obtained a royal pardon that cut his eight-year Cambodian jail sentence for abusing 15 underage girls in half.
Lt. Gen. Phal said the Interior Ministry was cooperating with the Russian Embassy to renew Molodyakov’s visa so that he can fly back to Russia, and added that his departure date would depend on when the necessary documents were processed.
An official at the Russian Embassy declined to comment.
On an order from the Interior Ministry calling for his expulsion from Cambodia, Molodyakov, also known as Alexander Trofimov, was arrested early Monday morning at a house in Kandal province where he was staying with a Cambodian family, including a young girl. He is currently being held at immigration police headquarters in Phnom Penh.
The one-time executive director of Koh Puos Investment Group – the company behind a multi-million dollar island resort off the coast of Sihanoukville – Molodyakov was charged with abusing 15 underage Cambodian girls in 2007, convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.
He was released in December by royal decree, a decision that shocked child protection groups which have since been calling for the government to honor a May 2009 extradition request from Russia.
Child protection NGOs yesterday said that if Molodyakov was not sent back to Russia to face charges there, he would remain a threat to children elsewhere.
Maggie Eno, founder and director of M’Lop Tapang, an organization working with street children in Sihanoukville, said the only safe option was to return Molodyakov to Russia and make him stand trial.
With anything less, she said, “There’s a risk of him…abusing wherever he gets deported to.”
Anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour les Enfants agreed and also urges police to investigate Molodyakov’s relationship with the underage girl in Kandal province.
“This can be the best option for now to prevent him from abusing more children,” the organization said in a statement yesterday.
Asked about the possibility of an investigation into the Molodyakov’s relations with the girl, Lt. Gen. Phal declined to comment.
