PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian police on Tuesday arrested more than 30 Chinese nationals in Phnom Penh, charging them with producing adult content, which is illegal in the country.
The Ministry of Interior’s Penal Department Lieutenant Colonel Nuon Kimhong told the Khmer Times that the suspects were arrested after a night raid on an apartment building in the capital’s Boeng Keng Kang district. He said the raid was conducted after two Cambodian women allegedly reported being “persuaded by a group of Chinese to produce pornographic videos in exchange for money.”
Other sources, however, said that the police acted in response to “the leak of a pornographic film depicting Cambodian women and foreigners engaged in sexual activities, which had been widely shared and commented on social media.”
“The activities of these foreign suspects have affected the dignity of Cambodians, especially women,” said Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior Chou Bun Eng. “So we cannot allow this crime, especially human trafficking to happen in Cambodia. For the new government and its Pentagonal Strategy Phase I, we have set the issue of ‘combating crime’ as a priority task.”
All aspects of producing and distributing pornography are heavily criminalized in Cambodia, as are all forms of sex work, under a draconian “Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation” enacted in 2008.
Article 39 of the law mandates prison time and a fine not only for production or distribution, but even for possession of adult content.