A Commerce Ministry official on Thursday denied clearing an allegedly forged letter for the export of luxury-grade wood to Vietnam during the second day of hearing at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in the trial of Taing Sok Ngy, Cambodia’s former deputy consul-general to Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr. Sok Ngy was arrested at a Phnom Penh restaurant in June for allegedly producing counterfeit letters allowing Cambodian firms to export the high-value timber to Vietnam, and was charged with forging and using the documents.
On the first day of his trial last month, the former diplomat denied forging a Commerce Ministry document for the Heng Ly Investment Company and said he took the precaution of calling his friend Mak Osaphea, head of the ministry’s legislative department, to make sure it was genuine. He said Mr. Osaphea assured him it was, prompting him to endorse the shipment.
On the witness stand Thursday, Mr. Osaphea rejected Mr. Sok Ngy’s account of their interaction.
“I did not tell him the letter was real. I asked him to ask the minister,” he told the court.
Under questioning from Judge Lim Makaron, Mr. Sok Ngy admitted that he was not sure whether his friend was officially sanctioned to verify such letters but said he called him because he was a ministry official and had provided useful advice in the past.
Also in court Thursday were three men arrested in Phnom Penh in September in possession of a trove of fake government documents and stamps.
One of the three, Soum Udomreaksmey, admitted to making a fake Commerce Ministry stamp but said he knew nothing about the documents it was used on.
Nheb Sovanna, who was also arrested in September, said he and the others were hired by a man named Pal To to make the stamp for $75.
“Mr. Pal To asked me to do it, but he did not tell me who it was being made for and I just made the stamp,” he said.
The three men all testified that they did not know Mr. Sok Ngy.
The trial is scheduled to resume on October 5.
