Ms
Alison Burrow
Ambassador
to Cambodia
Australian
Embassy
16B,
National Assembly Street
Sangkat
Tonle Bassac
Lhan
Chamkamon,
Phnom
Penh, Cambodia
3rd
Feb 2014
Dear
Ambassador
In
the event that I am arrested later this week, I am placing the following on
record:
On
28th Feb a policeman arrived at my hotel to present me with a
document prepared by the Phnom Penh court. He asked me to sign it with my thumb
print. Given that I do not read Khmer I declined. When I had the document
translated I found that it made little sense to me and, again, I declined to
place my thumb print on it.
The
following text (English translation) suggested that I was being accused of being, in some way, involved in ‘prostitution’:
…accused Mr. Jame Ricketson, male, aged 64, Australian,
of prostitution (the act
frustrating the protection, assistance, or correction by the organization)
committed in Phnom Penh in 2010 according to article 25 and 26 of the law on
suppression against human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
order Mr. Jame Ricketson, male, aged
64…to appear at Phnom Penh Municipal court at questioning room “M” 3rd floor on 07 March 2014 Time at
2:30 PM
In order to question the case of prostitution (the
act frustrating the protection, assistance, or correction by the organization).
The above person
shall bring all documents concerning with the case, if any.
In case the above name fails to appear
on the schedule, we will issue the arrest warrant
A few days later a journalist
spoke with the court and was informed that no, I was not being accused of being
a prostitute, or involved in
prostitution, but with posting pornography on my blog. I wrote the attached
letter to Pastor Leigh Ramsey of the Brisbane-based Citipointe church seeking
evidence from her that I had posted pornography on my blog.
By this morning, 3rd
March, the accusation had changed to my ‘hindering’ an unnamed organization in
its attempts to help prostitutes.
It is clearly Citipointe church
that has brought one of the three above-mentioned charges against me or,
perhaps, all three. I don’t know and, despite my asking, in a letter, the court
has not informed me. I have attached a copy, in Khmer, of the letter I wrote to
the court – in both Khmer and English.
If I were to attend an interview
with the police and they refused to tell me who had brought the charges against
me, the exercise of being ‘interviewed’ would be a futile one. In the absence
of the name of my accuser, how could the evidence that my accuser has presented
to the police of my ‘hindering’ be presented to me to respond to? In the
absence of evidence, what would there be to discuss?
If the interview was to be conducted in the
absence of evidence and without me being officially told that the accusations
came from Citipointe, I would walk out. The police could then interpret this as
my ‘hindering’ their investigation!
But let’s just say I was prepared
to sit through an ‘evidence free’ interview, without knowing, officially, who
has laid the charges? Given that I do not know if I am being charged with one
or all three of the above charges, how can I possibly know what documents to
bring along to prove my innocence?
In a proper court of law it is up
to a prosecutor to present evidence of the guilt of the accused. It is not up
to the accused to provide proof of his or her innocence? Cambodia seems to be
an exception to this basic legal principle!
And if I turn up for this
‘interview’ without documents, will this also be viewed as evidence that I am
‘hindering’ the investigation?
In the event that I am being
charged with ‘hindering’ (presuming that there is such a crime!) I could easily
prove my innocence by providing copies
of all my correspondence with Citipointe this past five years – during which
time I have been acting as an advocate for the parents of two girls illegally
removed from their family by the church in 2008. These amount more than 150.
Should I present all 150 of them to the police in English or in Khmer? To have
around 150 letters translated into Khmer would be beyond my financial capacity
to accomplish. And if it turns out that it is, after all, the posting of
pornography I am being accused of, the expense of having the documents
translated will have been wasted.
If, indeed, it is ‘hindering’ I
am being accused of and not being a prostitute or posting porn, the question
then arises:
How did Geoff Armstrong,
Executive Director of the Global Development Group, know on 24th Feb,
two days before the document was prepared by the court, on 26th Feb,
that I was to be charged with ‘hindering’?
In the absence of any clarity
about who has brought these non-specific charges against me and what the nature
of the charges is, I will not attend an interview with the police. If this
results in my arrest, so be it. This is far preferable to attending an
‘interview’ under the circumstances outlined above. If nothing else my arrest
for ‘hindering’ an unnamed NGO will
highlight how laughably incompetent the Cambodian judiciary is and raise some
questions in the media about both Citipointe and the Global Develop Group’s
funding of the church. Perhaps, with me in jail, it will occur to those who
should have been asking Citipointe questions this past five years, to start
asking questions. The first of which should be:
On what legal basis did the
church remove Rosa and Chita from their family in 2008? To be more specific, on
11th August 2008, when Rebecca Brewer told Rosa and Chita’s parents
that their daughters would stay with the church’s ‘SHE Rescue Home’ until they
were 18, on what legal basis did it do so?
This is a question that you, as Australia’s
Ambassador, could also ask of Citipointe – an Australian church that runs the
‘SHE Rescue Home’.
best
wishes
James
Ricketson
No comments:
Post a Comment