Western NGO workers have alerted their embassies that they feel endangered after receiving an e-mailed “public message” from suspected pedophile Pierre Guynot.
The message is in response to a TV documentary aired in France on Jan 29 describing Cambodia as a destination for sex tourists and that singled out Guynot.
In the e-mail, Guynot indicates he believes a man who spoke on the documentary, called “Right to Know” is the coordinator of the Phnom Penh NGO Mith Samlanh/Friends, Sebastien Marot.
“The voice of the investigator of the Phnom Penh NGO was recognized and identified,” the e-mail said. “The streets of Phnom Penh will become ‘cut throat’ in the literal sense of the expression for some Europeans that want to make the law in a country that is not theirs.”
Marot has denied being the speaker on the documentary. The documentary makers obscured the interviewee during its airing.
The message concludes by saying Guynot is awaiting broadcasts of “death notices that will not come from the Gaza Strip.”
While Guynot admitted Monday to sending the e-mail to his family, the media, the French embassy in Cambodia and Mith Samlanh/Friends, he denied there was anything threatening in the message.
“No people can feel endangered because of the e-mail,” he said.
The message’s intent was to rebuke people for needlessly destroying Cambodia’s reputation, Guynot said. The man on the video “speaks very badly about Cambodia and in this show, they say Cambodia is the main place for sexual tourism. We will miss a lot of tourists. [The documentary] destroys the good work of many people.”
Additonally, Guynot said, he is harmless.
“I can not do any trouble,” Guynot said.
Marot remains concerned, however.
“Someone clearly sent me an e-mail death threat,” he said.
Several Western embassies have confirmed they have been approached by other foreign workers at the NGO who believe ther were threatened.
Prosecuting Judge Tak Kimsea has suggested that Friends had encouraged young boys to make false charges against Guynot so that they could blackmail him.
Guynot, 45, the owner of Obye Karting in Sihanoukville’s Mittapheap district, is accused of illegal confinement, sexual abuse and illegal possession of a weapon stemming from allegations he sexually abused young boys in sadomasochistic rituals in his home.
He was arrested on May 31, 2001, and served six months in jail before he his case came to court Nov 30, 2001.
At the trial, the judge released him pending the gathering of further evidence.
A new trial was to have taken place within two to three months, but has not materialized, frustrating several court and government officials, including Minister of Womens’ and Veterans’ Affairs Mu Sochua.
The minister has been at the forefront of a push against Cambodia’s reputation with pedophiles as a place where children can be easily preyed upon. But so far only one foreign pedophile has been successfully convicted and is serving a prison sentence. Corrupt officials and a weak judicial system has allowed countless others to slip away during recent years.
