# 40 Has LICADHO become corrupted by its unquestioning allegiance to APLE?

David Fletcher claims that he was not in Cambodia at the time of the alleged rapes – 15^th and 22^nd March 2009. The only evidence of this that would stand up in a Cambodian court is to be found in Mr Fletcher’s passport. The British Embassy in Bangkok, knowing this to be the case, destroyed Mr Fletcher’s passport without making photocopies of the pages that he needed to present a defense in court. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office has now provided two different explanations as to why and how Mr Fletcher’s passport was destroyed. In one version it was a ‘mistake’ and in the other, in accordance with standard Embassy protocols. Neither version of what happened to the passport withstands close scrutiny.

Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond refuses to answer any questions at all in relation to Mr Fletcher’s passport. And Freedom of Information requests for information about the fate of Mr Fletcher’s passport have been turned down.

Less than 24 hours from David Fletcher’s ‘re-trial’, (20^th Nov 2014) the woman he allegedly raped, Yang Dany, has been spirited out of Cambodia by the NGO (Action Pour Les Enfants) so that she will not be available for cross-examination. She has sent to China but there is a suggestion, pure speculation at this point, that she has been trafficked to China.

How many other men are in jail as a result of allegations as demonstrably false as those leveled at David Fletcher perpetrated by APLE?

For anyone interested in how this matter has unfolded (and with the patience necessary!) should start at #1 and read through to # 40.

James Ricketson

Europe Guest House

# 51, Street 136 Phnom Penh

+85517 898 361

                             jamesricketson@gmail.com

Dear Dr Kek Pung

President

LICADHO

19^th Nov 2014

Dear Dr Pung

I have received no response from you or anyone else at LICADHO to my letter of 14^th Nov.

Just as the British Government has abandoned David Fletcher to the  corrupt Cambodian judicial system, so too has LICADHO - despite your now knowing that Yang Dany remained a virgin, her hymen intact, after having allegedly been ‘brutally raped’ by him in March 2009.

“Do you believe, Dr Pung, as do the judges within the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, that a woman’s hymen can grow back?”

If not, how can any rape have taken place?

The answer is that APLE has known since September 2010 that no rape took place, yet the NGO has pursued Mr Fletcher all this time and pursues him still, in Nov 2014, telling Yang Dany and her mother that there is a $5,000 pot of gold awaiting them if they stick to their original rape allegations – regardless of the evidence; regardless of both Yang Dany and her mother’s filmed denial that any rapes took place. It is symptomatic of the arrogance of APLE, of the NGO’s total lack of respect for the legal and human rights of those accused of crimes they did not and those induced, with false promises of financial reward if they press charges, that they proceed to act as though the rape charged had any validity at all.

How can LICADHO, with a clear conscience, partner itself with such an NGO such as APLE?

It has been suggested to me that the reason why LICADHO will take no interest at all in the case of David Fletcher is that LICADHO works hand-in-glove with Action Pour les Enfants and cannot, will not, be in any way critical of the NGO.  The question that I have now is:

“Does LICADHO believe that the modus operando used by APLE to convict men of pedophile-related offences respects Cambodian law and the human rights of both men accused by APLE and ‘victims’ who are induced, with promises of large sums of money, to testify against such men?”

If LICADHO does not approve of APLE’s modus operandi, why do you continue to work with this NGO?

Another question arises:

“How much evidence does LICADHO need before you, Dr Pung,  will disassociate yourself from APLE or any other NGO that breaches the legal and human rights of Cambodians and non-Cambodians alike?”

From my knowledge of what has happened in the David Fletcher case (which is now quite extensive) it appears that LICADHO has deliberately turned a blind eye to the innumerable instances, in cases such as David Fletcher’s, in which APLE has been able to secure convictions on the basis of evidence that would not stand up in any court in the world other than in a country in which the judiciary is corrupt; a country in which verdicts or innocent or guilty are not decided on the basis of fact, of evidence, of truth, but on the basis of who can pay the judges the most to secure the outcome they desire?

From the evidence available to me (and it is considerable) APLE is a corrupt criminal organization that is exploiting the Cambodian legal system, exploiting the men it pursues and exploiting the women it induces to lay charges. I would contend that APLE is also exploiting LICADHO, using LICADHO to garner for itself a veneer of respectability.

If I am correct in my assessment, it is only a matter of time before APLE is exposed as an NGO far more fraudulent than the Somaly Mam Foundation. If and when some intrepid reporter exposes APLE as a fraud, as a criminal organization, LICADHO will be exposed to the accusation that it too is an NGO that can be bought, if the price is high enough, by fraudulent NGOs wishing to launder their reputation through their association with LICADHO.

I think, Dr Pung, that LICADHO is being dangerously naïve by offering its tacit approval of APLE through its turning of a blind eye; through its silence; through its refusal to ask questions of APLE; through its refusal to answer any of my questions.

With the evidence I have at my disposal, it is clear that David Fletcher did not rape Yang Dany. That is all that concerns me here. I happen to think that David Fletcher has likewise not sexually abused any under aged girls in Cambodia but this is a gut level response and not one based on facts. If anyone were to produce evidence that my gut feeling was wrong, I would be the first to recommend that Mr Fletcher be charged and tried for such crimes. I do not, however, want him to be charged and tried and found guilty of a crime he did not commit.

If LICADHO is not in court tomorrow to observe, impartially, what takes place, it will be difficult to escape the conclusion that LICADHO has decided that its allegiance to APLE, regardless of facts, evidence and the truth, trumps David Fletcher’s human rights and those of Yang Dany and her mother – believing, as they do, that there is a $5,000 pot of gold waiting for them if David Fletcher is, yet again, found guilty of raping a young woman whose hymen remained intact after the rapes!

best wishes

James Ricketson

This is an extract from the medical report prepared for the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in September 2010 - 3 months after David Fletcher's arrest in Thailand. The report makes clear that Yang Dany's hymen was intact; that she was a virgin. The judges decided, in the secret trial, that Yang Dany's hymen must have grown back.