Saturday, January 31, 2015

3 Frenchmen given suspended jail term for nude photos at Cambodian heritage site





PHNOM PENH, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian court on Saturday gave a six-month suspended jail sentence to three French tourists for taking pornographic photos at the Angkor Archeological Park, a world heritage site.
"After a full-day hearing, the court convicted the three Frenchmen of showing their sex organs and producing pornographic pictures and sentenced each of them to six months in prison, but the whole jail term is suspended," Kirt Sovanareth, chief prosecutor at the Siem Reap Provincial Court, told Xinhua via telephone.
The trio were also fined 250 U.S. dollars, he said.
"They will be deported from Cambodia on Sunday and banned from re-entering Cambodia for four years," he added.
The Frenchmen are identified as Rodolphe Fourgeot, 19; Alexandre Vix, 19; and Vincent Bocquet, 20.
Cambodian authorities arrested the group on Thursday while they were taking their nude photos at Banteay Kdei temple in the complex of the 12th century Angkor Archeological Park.
Angkor Archeological Park, inscribed on the UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1992, is the kingdom's largest tourist destination. It is located in Siem Reap province, some 315 km northwest of the capital of Phnom Penh.
The site received 2.35 million foreign tourists last year, earning a gross revenue of 59.3 million U.S. dollars from ticket sales, according to the government.
Editor: Xiang Bo