Woman Charged, 20 Sex Workers Freed in Raid

Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged a 30-year-old woman with operating a brothel following a raid on a building owned by a Phsar Chas deputy commune chief in Daun Penh district, po­lice said Wednesday.

Ly Pov was arrested Mon­day after police uncovered 20 female sex workers, aged 18 to 25, during a raid in Phsar Chas commune, said Meng Say, chief of the municipal police anti-trafficking bureau.

The street-level apartment where Ly Pov allegedly ran her business belonged to Seng Sophal, deputy chief of Phsar Chas commune, said Huy Song, Daun Penh district penal police chief.

Seng Sophal on Wednesday denied any knowledge of prostitution on his property.

“My apartment has been rented to Ly Pov for about three years. I am not running a sex business. I have a [rental] contract with her,” Seng Sophal said.

Seng Sophal said he thought Ly Pov’s girls only offered massages and traditional medical treatments.

Police officials, though, were not convinced. Keo Thea, deputy chief of the anti-trafficking bu­reau, said that Ly Pov’s business was obvious.

He said she kept all 20 prostitutes on the premises and had a steady stream of male clients, coming and going.

He said that most of the wo­men found working in the brothel have been sent to the NGO Afesip. Others were sent to their parents, who vouched that their daughters would not return to prostitution, he said.

 

 

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