Jailed Giant Ocean Boss in Court on Fresh Charges

Lin Yu Shin, the 54-year-old Taiwanese owner of the now defunct Giant Ocean International Fishing Co., appeared in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday on fresh charges laid after a man claimed that he was trafficked by the company to work on a boat in South Africa.

In April, Ms. Lin was jailed for 10 years on charges of human trafficking after Giant Ocean duped hundreds of Cambodians into working on fishing boats in slave-like conditions. The company was shut down by the Labor Ministry in 2012.

Plaintiff Thean Udom testified in court Monday that after being recruited by Ms. Lin’s company, he was forced to work for no pay on a ship in South African waters between June and October 2010.

“I ran away from the ship and contacted my younger brother for help,” Mr. Udom said. “I was beaten and given very little food to eat.”

No one at Giant Ocean, which was once registered with the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, told him where he would be sent when he responded to a call for laborers.

He is seeking $10,000 in compensation for his ordeal and $600 in unpaid wages.

Ms. Lin has repeatedly denied that she was ever the head of the company, insisting in April that she was a translator, and changing that story Monday to say that she had been a company cook.

“The company sent laborers to work in Malaysia to work in a house,” she told the court. “I did not know laborers were sent to Africa.”

The trial will resume on August 13.

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