A Japanese citizen charged with child sex crimes was released on bail this week, and his young female victim was berated in a court order signed by senior court officials for not revealing her age when the suspect purchased her for sex in the notorious Svay Pak brothel village last November.
Police caught Kanae Masato, 54, in a Svay Pak brothel with a video camera containing footage of himself having sex with six girls who appeared to be well under 15, the legal age for consensual sex.
Masato, however, is on trial for having sex with another underage girl that he did not videotape.
The order to release Masato, signed by Court President Judge Sor Sophory and Chief Prosecutor Uk Savuth and dated March 23, allowed lawyer Dy Borima to bail out his client for $5,000 because Masato’s health was “deteriorating” in prison.
The court order stated: “If [Masato] knew the girl was underage, he would not have sex with her.”
“The [victim] preferred to have sex with him without force. And while having sex she did not tell the man how old she was.”
Uk Savuth said Friday that it was the judge’s right to make a decision.
Pierre Legros, director of Afesip, the NGO sheltering the girl, blasted the decision to release Masato on Friday. “If the justice system in Cambodia can’t handle this case, there is no hope. It’s all finished. It’s time to go home,” he said.
Legros said that a trial date has not yet been set for Masato despite the videotape evidence and the girl’s confession.
“She doesn’t even look 12, she looks younger,” said Aarti Kapoor, Afesip’s legal adviser. A photograph seen Friday confirmed the young appearance of the victim.
Yutaka Aoki, first secretary of the Japanese Embassy, said Friday that Masato is in Phnom Penh and “has no intention of leaving the country.”
“[Masato] regrets what he did and is awaiting trial,” he said. “He will cooperate fully with the court. I think he understands that this crime would also be punished by Japanese domestic law.”
Legros said that Masato was only the tip of the iceberg of the child sex trafficking world.
“If we are not able to sentence a perpetrator with 1,000 percent proof,” he asked, “then how can we crack highly sophisticated trafficking networks?” (Additional reporting by Pin Sisovann)
