Lawyer for Heng Pov targets ministry official

phnompenhpost

May 04, 2010 at 5:57 pm

Photo by: Sovan Philong Ex-police chief Heng Pov arrives at the Appeal Court on Friday.

THE lawyer for disgraced former municipal police chief Heng Pov is calling on the government to arrest an Interior Ministry official he blames for kidnapping a Korean man in 2005.

Kao Soupha, Heng Pov’s lawyer, wrote a letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng in April, urging him to investigate the former head of the ministry’s anti-human trafficking bureau.

Yon Ye, the lawyer said, was involved in extorting US$11,000 from a Korean man, but instead accused Heng Pov of committing the crime.

“I want the ministry to arrest the perpetrator because I am Heng Pov’s lawyer and I have seen many unjust cases brought against him,” Kao Soupha said.

Heng Pov was originally charged with kidnapping Korean Lee Kyong Ho in February 2006, one of a slew of charges that eventually saw the former police chief sentenced to more than 90 years in prison.

However, he was not convicted on the kidnapping charge, his lawyer said, after Lee Kyong Ho testified that Heng Pov never extorted money from him.

Instead, Lee Kyong Ho implicated Yon Ye, Kao Soupha said.

According to documents filed at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Lee Kyong Ho testified last year that he withdrew US$11,000 from a bank in Phnom Penh, then handed the cash over to Yon Ye, after police raided his house and accused him of human trafficking.

Three years earlier, however, Yon Ye told court prosecutors investigating the case that Heng Pov was responsible.

Khieu Sopheak, the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, said Monday that he had received the letter from Heng Pov’s lawyer, but declined to comment on the issue at length.

“I am now forwarding it to the National Police to take action,” said Khieu Sopheak, who confirmed that Yon Ye was no longer the head of the anti-human trafficking police bureau, but remained employed within the ministry as a police officer.

While awaiting an appeal hearing for an unrelated attempted murder conviction on Friday, Heng Pov said he had witnessed guards at Prey Sar prison, where he is currently incarcerated, beating and torturing other inmates.

Torture at Prey Sar: Heng Pov

KI Media

Monday, 03 May 2010
Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Former municipal police chief Heng Pov is led into the Appeal Court before a hearing on Friday. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

DISGRACED former Phnom Penh municipal police chief Heng Pov has accused Prey Sar prison workers of overseeing the torture and beatings of inmates.

Speaking Friday while awaiting an Appeal Court hearing during which he sought to overturn a conviction on attempted murder charges, Heng Pov said he has seen prison guards at the prison “torture” inmates.

“They even ask outsiders to beat the prisoners,” Heng Pov told a Post reporter. “I would like the Ministry of Interior as well as Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng to know about this and look into the problem.”

Heng Pov said he also has evidence demonstrating that prison guards were responsible for the 2008 death of 24-year-old Heng Touch, whose family has long believed he was beaten to death while in custody.

“Heng Touch was beaten to death,” Heng Pov said. “But [authorities] pretended to save him by sending him to hospital and accusing him of committing suicide. I have enough evidence and witnesses.”

At the time, local rights groups and UN officials urged authorities to investigate the death, but prison officials called the claims “an exaggeration” and insisted Heng Touch died while trying to commit suicide.

Despite the allegations, Heng Pov said he believes most guards at Prey Sar are well-behaved; it is only “bad officials” who commit crimes, he said.

Prison officials and government authorities on Friday rejected Heng Pov’s claims.

“What he said is his right,” said Mong Kim Heng, the director of Prey Sar prison. “But the fact is, his accusations aren’t true. Prisoners receive healthcare like any other person, even though they have lost their freedom to go into the outside world.”

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak defended prison officials, calling Heng Pov’s claims unacceptable.

“Heng Pov is a prisoner, so prisoners will never say something good about prison officials,” Khieu Sopheak said.

However, rights groups say they believe questions linger over Heng Touch’s death.

“The court has not issued any charges for any suspect yet. It is quiet,” said Am Sam Ath, the senior monitoring supervisor for local rights group Licadho.

“Justice has not been given in this case for the family of the victim.”

And he said that although his monitors have not witnessed in-custody torture or beatings with their own eyes, they have heard many allegations from incarcerated inmates.

“What Heng Pov and the letters we received said about torture are similar,” he said. “So the torture may exist.”

In court on Friday, Heng Pov denied any involvement in a 2005 attack that left an Electricite du Cambodge employee, Kim Daravuth, paralysed, saying he had never even met the victim.

“I did not order, facilitate or execute the plan to kill him,” Heng Pov told the court. “I never knew Kim Daravuth.”

Appeal Court Judge Chuon Sunleng said a decision on the appeal would be handed down on May 20.

Heng Pov has proved to be a controversial figure in recent years. He was widely feared while he was the police chief of Phnom Penh’s municipal police force. Following his arrest in 2006, he was eventually convicted on a slew of charges including extortion, kidnapping and murder, and sentenced to more than 90 years in prison cumulatively.

Before his arrest, Heng Pov said he was the victim of government persecution for what he said were his efforts to speak out about human rights violations and rampant corruption.

But Heng Pov appears to have had a recent change of heart, and has authored a book, released in April, that praises Prime Minister Hun Sen as a skillful leader.