Connect with us

Regional News

Cambodia: 12 Year Girl Old Who Purposely Drowned 4 Year Old Relative Goes Free

Avatar of CTN News

Published

on

article-2401854-11EC310A000005DC-118_634x406

12-year-old girl in has reportedly confessed to drowning her 4-year-old cousin in order to steal and sell the victim’s gold earrings and buy a new mobile phone.

.

CAMBODIA – The 12-year-old girl from Kampong Speu who confessed to luring a 4-year-old relative Seit Khem Chang into a lake and then drowning her will face no charges due to her age.

This raises questions about the limited options in Cambodia’s legal system for dealing with adolescents who commit serious offences.

Instead, the Judge ordered her mother to pay $2,000 in restitution to the victim’s family, said Sam Sak, director of the provincial crime office. Even that fee will likely go unpaid.

“The court has released her, because since she is under 14, we cannot detain her,” Sak said yesterday. “But the court has ordered her mother to pay the victim $2,000 – however, she cannot pay this, because she is too poor.”

In a videotaped confession made hours after the incident on Saturday, the girl demonstrated how she lured her distant cousin into a lake in Samrong Tong district’s Svay village and drowned her. She then took the girl’s earrings, sold them for $20.50 and bought a $19 mobile phone.

The suspect was taken into police custody and questioned yesterday and Monday, but documents proved she was about a year-and-a-half younger than 14, the age of criminal responsibility in Cambodia.

Cambodia lacks a juvenile court, Cambodian legal expert Sok Sam Oeun said yesterday. In cases where a child under 14 is suspected of a serious crime, it is up to the court to decide how to proceed.

“We have no juvenile court, only one court for everything,” Sam Oeun said yesterday. “The prosecutor, he must decide whether to pursue charges.”

A draft law on children in conflict with the law has not yet been enacted, Sharon Critoph, prison consultant for rights group Licadho said in an email yesterday, although she believes text for it is being finalised. Children can, however, be put under court supervision.

“The Criminal Code does provide for supervisory, educational, or assistance measures in such cases,” Critoph said. “We are not aware of any such mechanism being regularly implemented, if ever.”

By Sean Teehan and Kim Sarom

Continue Reading

CTN News App

CTN News App

Recent News

BUY FC 24 COINS

compras monedas fc 24

Volunteering at Soi Dog

Find a Job

Jooble jobs

Free ibomma Movies