# 21 Filmmaker's statement to the court, 26th September 2014

To:

Mr Ke Sakhan Vice Head of Phnom Penh Municipal Trial Court, as Head of Council

Mrs Chaing Sinat, Vive Head of Phnom Municipal Trial Court, as Head of Council

Chea Sok Heang, Judge of Phnom Penh Municipal Trial Court, as Counsel Judge

re Criminal case No 1551, dated 15 July 2010

Trial No. 1854, dated 15 October 2010

26^th September 2014

Dear Judges Ke, Bhaing and Sok

I am an Australian citizen and filmmaker. I greatly admire Cambodia and its people and I wish the country well. Sadly, I believe that sometimes Cambodian people are not treated well by foreigners and I am making a film about this subject. I expect and intend the film to have wide distribution.

I am aware of and admire the efforts of the current Cambodian courts to stamp out the evil exploitation of women and children within the country and to place in jail the persons responsible.

I am also aware of the case of  a UK citizen, David John Fletcher, sentenced by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to 10 years in jail for rapes alleged to have taken place in 2009 and 2010.  I humbly submit my belief that the court has been misled in this case by a failure to submit all of the available evidence for the Court’s consideration.

A key component of that evidence is the medical material in documentation prepared for the Court. The named victim, Yang Dany, was subject to competent medical examination after 2 alleged rapes but found to be still a virgin, with hymen intact. The Court will be aware that the presence of an intact hymen rules out the possibility of rape.

Mr Fletcher would have welcomed and would still welcome the opportunity to answer the allegations made against him. He would have welcomed the chance to clearly review these with the Anti-Human Trafficking Police, with an Investigating Judge or with any other authorised person within the Cambodian legal system. Unfortunately such an opportunity never came his way. As a result Mr Fletcher was never able to introduce evidence in support of his own assertion that he is innocent of the charges that have been laid against him. Some of this evidence is in the form of documents formally in the possession of the British Embassy in Thailand. 

Mr Fletcher is in the process of obtaining copies of that evidence from the Embassy. He greatly wishes and sincerely requests the opportunity to submit this material and his defense to the court on any date appointed for a hearing of his appeal or at a new trial.

In closing, I would like to make clear my own abhorrence of crimes against women and children. The strength of this feeling is only matched by my belief in the primacy of Justice, a feeling shared, I am convinced, by the Court.  I respectfully trust that this submission will be seen in that light.

yours sincerely

 

James Ricketson