The son of a jailed Australian surrogacy broker has finally been deported more than a month after he was arrested for allegedly destroying private property while wandering shirtless in Phnom Penh.
Dylan Charles came to Cambodia late last year in an attempt to free his mother, Tammy Davis-Charles, who was arrested in November a few weeks after the government outlawed commercial surrogate pregnancies in the country.
He was arrested on January 25 and had been languishing in detention at the Interior Ministry’s immigration department ever since. On Friday, the 26-year-old was deported from Phnom Penh International Airport, said Uk Heisela, the department’s chief of investigations.
“His father bought the plane ticket and came to take him,” Major General Heisela said.
Mr. Charles was arrested by Boeng Keng Kang I commune police after he was seen walking without a shirt along Street 360 in Chamkar Mon district and attempting to throw paving stones at passing vehicles in the early morning.
On Sunday, he declined a request for comment via a Facebook message.
Mr. Charles’ mother was arrested in November by anti-trafficking police along with two Cambodian associates, Commerce Ministry officer Penh Rithy and nurse Samrithchan Chariya.
Ms. Davis-Charles, 49, the director of Thailand-based Fertility Solutions PGD, was charged with forging documents and acting as an intermediary between an adoptive foreign parent and a pregnant Cambodian woman, and is being held in Prey Sar prison awaiting trial.
On Sunday, Ms. Davis-Charles’ attorney, Chheang Sophorn, said that Investigating Judge Ros Piseth had finished the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s investigation into her case late last month, but he was unsure when her hearing would occur. Judge Piseth could not be reached.
Prime Minister Hun Sen last month warned women to “be cautious of foreign requests for surrogate pregnancies” in order to avoid getting involved in potentially criminal activity, according to a Facebook post.
Surrogacy could be regulated or completely banned under a draft law being drawn up by an inter-ministerial committee.
At the end of last month, Chou Bun Eng, secretary of state with the Interior Ministry and vice chair of the national committee to combat human trafficking, said that foreign couples whose babies were carried by Cambodian surrogates would be allowed to leave the country with their children under a temporary exit plan awaiting approval from the prime minister.
