Japanese and Cambodian officials went to a hotel in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district Wednesday to inquire about a Japanese man suspected of making child pornography in Cambodia, a senior municipal anti-trafficking official and hotel staff said Thursday.
Anti-trafficking police and Japanese Interpol examined the room at the hotel where the man stayed, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the Municipal Anti-Trafficking Police.
“We just cooperated with Interpol. The case is in Japan, but we brought them to check the room,” Keo Thea said.
Keo Thea declined to name the hotel, but a senior member of staff at Mean Haur Hotel, a multistory establishment offering massage and karaoke and situated 100 meters from the scandal-wracked Chai Hour II Hotel, said the Mean Haur was the hotel in question.
Another staff member said the two hotels were associated. The Mean Haur Hotel’s business card features a map that shows directions to the Chai Hour II.
The Japanese man stayed at the Mean Haur Hotel for a few days in 2002 and was making commercial child pornography in Svay Pak, a Mean Haur manager said on condition of anonymity.
The manager denied the man made child pornography inside the hotel, but added: “We didn’t know what he did inside his room during his stay.” The hotel does not sell sex, he said.
Two Japanese investigators, an interpreter and an embassy representative visited the hotel along with Cambodian Interpol officials and district police officials, he added. “We gave all the reports to the police,” he said.
The Japanese Embassy said it was too early to comment on the case Thursday.
