Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced a computer technician to one year in prison on Tuesday for distributing pornographic images taken of a 17-year-old Chinese girl he allegedly held hostage and forced to strip naked, officials said.
Malis Malingka, 25, was found guilty of distributing the images by SMS telephone text messaging, and will serve four months of the one-year sentence along with a $1,250 fine, Deputy Prosecutor Sok Roeun said Wednesday.
Sok Roeun refused to comment further on the case and presiding Judge Nhean Sovann declined comment.
Keo Thea, deputy chief of Phnom Penh’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit, said police arrested Malis Malingka on July 22 on charges of threatening and detaining the teenage girl in his room and shooting a video of her naked which he then distributed as still images by telephone.
According to a letter written by the victim, Malis Malingka detained her on Jan 7, but she did not complain to police until July when she discovered the video had been distributed as images by telephone.
She also claimed that Malis Malingka bound her with electric cable for one hour and threatened to kill her and her family if she did not agree to pose for the video.
Initial charges of detention and threats against Malis Malingka were dropped on Sept 28 by former municipal court Investigating Judge Tan Senarong and Chief Prosecutor Ouk Savouth, who believed that the girl acquiesced in making the video, a court official said on condition of anonymity.
The judges believed that the pair were in a relationship and that the girl decided to pursue charges after discovering the images had been distributed to others, the court official added.
The victim wrote a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday asking that the more serious detention charges be re-instated against Malis Malingka and for the Supreme Council of Magistracy to investigate the decision.
