# 19 David Fletcher's statement to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court

Royal Court of Cambodia

Your Honours of the Royal Court of Cambodia

My lawyer cannot represent me in court today so I am representing myself, as is my right under Cambodian law.

Thank you for allowing me to make a statement to the court. I swear by my  Queen and country that I am speaking the truth. Not everyone in court today wants to hear the truth.

I do not ask for any privilege. I ask only for a fair, honest and truthful trial in which I am able to present evidence in my own defense.

Previously, the Royal Cambodian Court has been deceived by NGOs making false and fabricated allegations to pervert the course of justice. I can prove that these allegations are false if I am given an opportunity to present evidence in my own defense.

The Cambodian government promised me and the British government I would be allowed a re-trial. I have been in Cambodia for one year but the Cambodian Court has not honoured its word.

Mr James Ricketson, an Australian filmmaker, wrote to your Honours on 26^th September to inform you that in an interview recorded on videotape Yang Dany told him that I had not raped her. In a second interview, witnessed by two journalists, she again confessed to having not been raped by me.

Yang Dany’s mother, Kheang Sokun, told Mr Ricketson (and his camera) and the two journalists that she would withdraw the rape charges if Mr Fletcher (myself) gave her $5,000. The original sum Kheang Sokun had asked to be awarded in compensation for my ‘raping’ her daughter was $30,000.

I would like to be able to present these two interviews conducted by Mr Ricketson to the court in my own defense.

Yang Dany’s confession that I had not raped her is backed up by the report written by Dr Mao Heng, Deputy Director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Department of Health on 8^th September 2010. In his report Dr Mao Heng declared that Yang Dany’s hymen is intact; that after being ‘brutally raped’ twice she remained a virgin. This document has been submitted to the court and I ask your Honours to ask yourselves how a woman can remain a virgin after being raped.

I respectfully request that your Honours allow me a fair trial in which all evidence – both for and against me – is carefully considered before a verdict is arrived at. If I am found guilty on the basis of evidence presented to the court, I will accept my punishment.

In addition to this statement I would like also to submit a document in which I draw your Honours attention to those parts of the Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedure that were not adhered to in the trial that took place in 2011 without my being able to attend it.

I thank your Honours and the Royal Court of Cambodia for your time and consideration.

Yours sincerely

David John Fletcher

27th October 2014