Submitted by Sahil Nagpal
Wed, 09/23/2009
CAAI News Media
Phnom Penh - A Belgian man convicted twice for child sex offences was expelled from Cambodia seven weeks after a coalition of child protection organizations petitioned authorities to expel him, a media report said Wednesday.
Philippe Dessart, 49, was put on a plane to Thailand last week, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported.
"We had enough legal grounds," the national police spokesman told the newspaper. "We didn't decide to deport him to Belgium; we just decided that he should be out of our country. Wherever he went to, it was his right."
Dessart was released from a Cambodian jail in April having spent three years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. On his release, he sparked outrage from child protection organizations by marrying the boy's mother after moving into her home in western Cambodia.
Dessart was previously convicted of child sex offences in his native Belgium, serving time there in the 1990s for child rape and torture.
Dessart's lawyer said his client's deportation was an abuse of his rights.
"He was with his wife; police came to invite him to a commune police station telling him that the national commissioner orders you to be expelled," Dun Vibol told the newspaper. "[On arrival in Thailand Dessart] called me saying he's got nothing with him and said they don't respect the law in Cambodia." (dpa)
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