Dancing in a Pornographic Manner Lands Tourists in Jail at Angkor Wat Temple Complex, Cambodia
The group of foreigners were arrested last week when police officials raided a rented villa in the tourist hub spot – situated at Siem Reap Town. Local Prosecutor, Samrith Sokhon, said that the suspects denied any wrong-doing at the pool-party.
Cambodian authorities arrested 10 foreigners for ‘dancing pornographically’ at a pool-party in Siem Reap Town near the famous Angkor Wat Temple complex. The group of foreigners were arrested last week when police officials raided a rented villa in the tourist hub spot – situated at Siem Reap Town. Local Prosecutor, Samrith Sokhon, said that the suspects denied any wrong-doing at the pool-party. He further revealed they would face up to a year in prison and a fine of $500.
The department said that they were participating in a pub-crawl and when they arrived at the Villa they found the group ‘dancing in a pornographic manner’. They arrested 87 foreigners at the party, 77 of those were ‘educated and let go’. Remaining 10 were detained and charged after used condoms were discovered in the building.
Duong Thavry, head of Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department in Siem Reap reported, “We cracked down on them because they committed activities that are against our culture.” The group includes citizens of the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway.
On Saturday, Cambodian authorities posted images that appeared to show dressed foreigners, laughing rolling around together on the floor during the party. Police also later released a group-image of the 10 defendants, but one of the member from the group said that those who arrested did not appear in the photographs.
“Honestly, it was really confusing. Everyone was confused. They raided, rounded us up – there were about 80 to 100 people at this party. Some of them were tourists. There were about 30 of them [police officers],” one of the arrested reported.
This is not a first case that Cambodia has disciplined foreigners for indecent behaviour or exposure in and around the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, Angkor Wat Temple. The Apsara Authority, the temple’s caretaker, launched an investigation over a photo shoot involving a Topless Model in 2015. While the images appear to be more artistic, it caught the Cambodian authority’s attention. Few days later, three French Tourists were arrested while taking nude photos, and were fined $750 each, a suspended six-months sentence and deported with a four-year ban on returning. Two American sisters were also charged $250 and deported for clicking revealing pictures of them at the Angkor Wat Temple.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2018 01:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).