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