Five-year term too light in child sex case: group

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Monday, 14 December 2009 15:02 Chrann Chamroeun

A FIVE-YEAR prison term handed to a Greek national convicted of soliciting sex from a teenager is too light, the head of a local child advocacy group said Sunday.

Samleang Seila, country director for Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), said the group is considering appealing Friday’s decision by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, which saw Christos Kampalios, 62, sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of soliciting sex from a 16-year-old girl, as well as producing child pornography.

A sentence of at least seven years would have been more appropriate, said Samleang Seila, whose group represented the victim in court.

“I wasn’t happy with the court’s sentence,” he said.

Kampalios was also ordered to pay his victim US$250 in compensation, a sum Samleang Seila said was “too small”.

“It will not help free the girl from her job as a prostitute. She should have been paid more than this so that she could pay for her studies.”

Kampalios’s defence lawyer, however, called the sentence “acceptable and suitable”.

“He thought the girl was older than 18,” said lawyer Dun Vibol.

Kampalios, a former soccer trainer, was arrested in April following a police raid on his Daun Penh district guesthouse. During his trial in early December, Kampalios said he never had sex with the girl.