HENG POV'S UNCEREMONIOUS RETURN TO CAMBODIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 002221

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP AND DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL CB KJUS
SUBJECT: HENG POV'S UNCEREMONIOUS RETURN TO CAMBODIA

REF: PHNOM PENH 2210


1. (SBU) Summary. Returned from Malaysia on December 21 by
private charter plane, former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov is
currently in Prey Sar prison outside Phnom Penh. The RGC tried to
keep Heng Pov's arrival under wraps for as long as possible, but the
media caught wind of the news in the early afternoon, and the story
spread throughout Phnom Penh throughout the day. End Summary.

Heng Pov is Returned to Cambodia
--------------


2. (SBU) On December 21, under heavy escort of armed police, RGC
officials transferred Heng Pov from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court
to Prey Sar Prison after he was deported from Malaysia earlier the
same day. Heng Pov, 51 years old and the former Phnom Penh
municipal police commissioner, departed the court in an official
vehicle following a one-hour court interrogation. The court
officials did not identify who questioned him nor the line of
questioning pursued during the session. Ouk Savuth, Prosecutor of
the Court, told Embassy Political FSN that court officials
questioned Pov about crimes he is suspected of committing in
Cambodia. The prosecutor, added that as a convicted criminal, Heng
Pov could not escape justice.


3. (SBU) Prime Minister Hun Sen sacked Heng Pov on July 27, 2006
from his position as Undersecretary of State for the Ministry of
Interior and advisor to the Prime Minister. Following his removal
from the government, the Municipal Court proceeded with an
investigation and subsequent issuance of an arrest warrant in July
2006 for crimes he was suspected of committing while he was serving
as municipal police commissioner. The arrest warrant, however, was
issued after Heng Pov had already fled to Singapore and Malaysia.
The court later convicted Heng Pov in absentia on September 18 to 18
years in prison for the murder of Municipal Court Judge Sok
Sethamony.


4. (SBU) During Pov's court appearance, journalists, human rights
workers, and members of the public were not allowed to observe the
proceedings and nearly one hundred police equipped with rifles and
riot gear surrounded the court; traffic around the court was
prohibited. Sources from the court said Chiv Keng, President of the
Municipal Court, questioned Pov himself before filing the required
legal documents to detain the already convicted former municipal
police chief at Prey Sar prison.


5. (SBU) Witnesses who followed Pov's deportation said he was
flown to Cambodia from Malaysia by charter flight, which landed at
the military airport near Phnom Penh's international airport at
13:20. According to one witness, Cambodian police put Heng Pov
immediately into a waiting police vehicle and drove him directly to
the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.


6. (U) Initial press reports indicate that Malaysia's Supreme
Court ruled that Heng Pov would be deported from Malaysia to
Cambodia, overturning a lower court's decision that would have
permitted Heng Pov to leave Malaysia but not necessarily face
deportation to Cambodia. Following the court's ruling, Heng Pov was
taken to the airport by a Cambodian Embassy vehicle that had been
stationed outside the courthouse awaiting the verdict.


7. (U) On December 6, 2006, Finland granted an entry visa to Heng
Pov on humanitarian grounds - a decision that had angered the
Cambodian government. On December 7, Hor Namhong, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation, sent a strongly-worded letter of protest to the Finnish
Government (reftel).


8. (SBU) A Singaporean Embassy official in Phnom Penh noted that
the Cambodian government had pressured its Ambassador repeatedly on
the subject of Heng Pov during the latter's incarceration in
Singaporean detention. He noted that prior to the Singaporean
Ambassador's departure from Phnom Penh for the holidays, FM Hor
Namhong had called the Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry to clarify
the GOS position that Heng Pov would not/not be permitted to enter
Singapore from Malaysia, should the Malaysian court release Heng Pov
to leave the country. The Singaporean Embassy official noted that
despite having a Finnish visa in his passport, Heng Pov lacked a
valid travel document as his passport had been cancelled; therefore,
the Singaporean government had been clear to Heng Pov and his
lawyers that he would not be permitted entry to Singapore - even to
transit the airport.


9. (U) As the day progressed and news regarding Heng Pov's return
became known to the media, the story was broadcast on the radio. By
day's end, people on the streets were talking about the news.
Pol/Econ Chief left a meeting at the Central Bank and all the guards
were gathered in a corner of the parking lot listening to a radio
and discussing Heng Pov's return.


PHNOM PENH 00002221 002 OF 002


Comment
--------------


10. (SBU) Heng Pov's return is good news to the RGC, who has
pressed both the Singaporean and Malaysian governments to return
Heng Pov to Cambodia to serve his sentence. Government sources
close to the MOI have noted that National Police Commissioner Hok
Lundy has made Heng Pov's return a priority for the MOI and a
personal mission given Heng Pov's accusations against Hok Lundy.
NGOs and the political opposition, however, believe that Heng Pov,
who had been a police officer since the 1980s, knows the secrets of
many unsolved politically-motivated crimes in Cambodia - and will
not be able to shed light on the facts surrounding these events from
a Cambodian prison cell. We have urged the government to respect
Cambodian law and the RGC's international human rights obligations
in their treatment of Heng Pov, and will continue to underscore
these themes in our discussions with RGC interlocutors.

MUSSOMELI