James Ricketson
Europe Guest House
# 51 Street 136
Phnom Penh
Phillip Hammond
Foreign Secretary
Parliamentary House of Commons
London
SW1A
16th Sept 2015
Dear Mr Hammond
No representative of the British
Embassy in Cambodia, or of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, attended Mr
Fletcher’s Appeal Court hearing on Monday 14th Sept to observe; to
take an interest in the human and legal rights of a British citizen.
This came as no surprise since Mr
Fletcher is an embarrassment to the FCO. Not because he raped Yang Dany but
because he almost certainly didn’t, as the FCO has known for the past four
years! And as you have known for the past year.
To re-cap:
- On the say-so of Scott Neeson,
urged on by CEOPS, SISHA, APLE and the
Cambodian ‘Anti Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department’,
the FCO decided to join the ‘Get Fletcher’ bandwagon before there was any
credible evidence that Mr Fletcher needed to be ‘got’.
- After 2 years of investigation
none of these investigative bodies had come up with any evidence that Mr
Fletcher was guilty of ‘grooming’ young girls (the Neeson allegation) or that
he had raped anyone. When Mr Fletcher left Cambodia in June 2010,no warrant for
his arrest having been issued, it became apparent that ‘their man’ had got
away; that they had all wasted a lot of time, energy and money and had nothing
to show for it!
- All was not lost, however. After
Mr Fletcher had left Cambodia, Yang Dany’s mother, Sekun ,was told that she and
her daughter could be awarded $30,000 in compensation if they charged Mr
Fletcher with rape. (This making of promises of financial gain to poor
Cambodians if they press charges in this way is now very well documented.)
- And so it was, by her own
admission a few years later, that Sekun (an impoverished scavenger) alleged
that David Fletcher had raped her daughter. Mr Fletcher had very conveniently
been arrested in Thailand a week earlier, thanks to co-operation between the
British Embassy in Thailand and the Thai authorities.
- Why was Mr Fletcher arrested?
Ostensibly on immigration charges (eventually dismissed by a Thai court) but it
soon became apparent that the impetus for the arrest came from Cambodia and
that the British Embassy played a significant role in arranging for the arrest
to take place.
- Did the British Embassy know, a
week before the rape charges were laid, that Mr Fletcher was going to be
charged? If so, how?
If the British Embassy in
Cambodia believed that there was strong evidence that Mr Fletcher had raped a
young Cambodian woman, FCO complicity in having Mr Fletcher arrested in
Thailand is understandable. Indeed, laudable.
Two questions arise, however:
(1) Who provided the British
Embassies in Cambodia and Thailand with evidence that Mr Fletcher had raped
Yang Dany? CEOPS?
(2) When it transpired, as it did
a few months later, that this evidence was flawed, to say the least, (Yang Dany
remained a virgin after her rape) why did the British Embassies in Cambodia and
Thailand continue to co-operate with both governments to have Mr Fletcher tried
and convicted of rape when there was significant evidence that he had not raped
anyone?
The only logical answer I have
been able to come up with is that the Foreign & Commonwealth office was now
so deeply involved in the pursuit and prosecution of Mr Fletcher that to
acknowledge his right to the presumption of innocence could prove to be very
embarrassing to numerous high ranking FCO officials. Throwing Mr Fletcher to
the wolves was preferable to advocating his right to a fair trial. Indeed, the
FCO went one step further – destroying evidence (his passport) that Mr Fletcher
was not even in Cambodia at the time he allegedly raped Yang Dany in a bar that
Mr. Fletcher did not open until six months after the alleged rapes!
There are many who stand to have
a lot of egg on their faces if Mr Fletcher’s case goes to trial, but perhaps
none more so that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. In a proper trial the
fate of Mr Fletcher’s passport (‘accidentally destroyed’ by the FCO) would be
explored. And the FCO would be asked the source of the information about the
alleged rapes that was sufficiently convincing for the British Embassy to
co-operate with Thai officials in Mr Fletcher’s arrest. And why is was that the
FCO decided to ignore the implications inherent in the doctors report declaring
Yang Dany to be a virgin after being raped?
The last thing that the FCO wants
is for any of what I am writing here to become public knowledge, as it almost
certainly would if Mr Fletcher were to be granted a trial. Better than Mr Fletcher
die in jail for a crime he almost certainly did not commit (could not have
committed!) than that the FCO be exposed as having behaved atrociously (as well
as illegally) in relation to Mr Fletcher.
If my memory serves me well, this
is the 39th letter I have written to you on this matter. If Mr
Fletcher is granted a trial, he must surely win his freedom as there is no
evidence at all that he raped Yang Dany that has been presented to any court to
date. And he should win because Yang Dany was spirited off to China by Action
Pour les Enfants so that she would not be in a position to testify; not in a
position to say in court, as she has to me and other reporters, that no rape
took place.
Mr Fletcher deserves a fair trial
and, if he is successful, I hope that he pursues the circumstances of his
arrest and incarceration in British courts and that the incompetence of the FCO
and the illegality of its actions in relation to him become public knowledge.
The article that appeared in the
Cambodia Daily yesterday, and the comments made in relation to it, will provide
you with some insight into the administration of justice that Mr Fletcher has
received in Cambodia with the blessing and complicity of the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office.
http://cambodia440.blogspot.com/2015/09/141-facts-irrelevant-to-david-fletcher.html
best wishes
James Ricketson
In today's Cambodia Daily there is a letter to the editor from Chea Nara, Lead Lawyer, APLE. It begins:
ReplyDelete"In response to the article “Convicted Rapist Insists Retrial Will Prove His Innocence”, APLE would like to clarify some critical points in the case of David Fletcher."
I need not transcribe the whole letter but will address key parts of it:
(1) "In the article, a claim is made that APLE knew that M rFletcher did not r4ape the victim...APLE has never seen or received any evidence that that canged its opinion about the girl's victimization..."
APLE knew, when it requested a secret trial in 2011, that a key piece of evidence in the case was an 8 page report, written by a doctor at the court's request, that declared that Yang Dany was a virgin, her hymen intact. This constituted very strong evidence that Yang Dany had not been raped but this evidence could not be hear in court and be subject to legal discussion because APLE had requested a closed court. ANd it did this because APLE knew that its case was very flimsy.
In November last year I personally handed APLE's lawyer, San Sony, a USB drive that had on it the interviews I had conducted with Yang Dany and her mother, Sekun.
I have also pointed out to Samleang Siela and Thierry Darnaudet where, on the internet, these interviews can be found.
Mr Chea Nara's statement is simply not true.
Chea Nara writes:
"APLE would like to close the case so that the victim can heal emotionally and move on with her life."
If, as Yang Dany and her mother insist, she was not raped, if, as the doctor's report makes clear, Yang Dany was almost certainly not raped, what healing is required?
More to the point, why did APLE send Yang Dany to China so that she would not be available to give evidence in a retrial or to tell more journalists what she had already told 3 journalist - namely that the only reason she and her mother pressed charges against Mr Fletcher was because they had been promised $30,000 in compensation if Mr Fletcher was found guilty.
Mr Chea Nara writes:
"If Fletcher was not given a fair opportunity to appeal his case, APLE fully supports that Mr Fletcher would be granted a retrial."
Mr Chea Nara has shown his true colours he. He is a liar. He, San Sary, Samleang Siela and Thierry Darnaudet have known since 2010 that it was highly unlikely that Mr Fletcher could have raped Yang Dany and her hymen remain intact. And APLE has known, since 2013, that it was not Mr Fletcher's fault that the paperwork did not arrive at the Phnom Penh Court in time.
If Chea Nara cared in any way about Mr Fletcher's legal and human rights he would have instructed Chea Nara to tell the Appeal Court judges that APLE supported Mr Fletcher's application for a retrial and welcomed the opportunity to present its case to the court.
Your own 'letter to the editor' could reach thousands and clarify APLE'.s involvement in this corruption. It also could keep corruption by APLE in the news. This is not the kind of exposure that APLE desires!
DeletePerhaps I have missed something, but the recent press release/statement of
ReplyDeleteAPLE suggests that it has taken the Proscecutors Seat all along.
The claim that "no evidence was provided to APLE that Yang Dany was not
raped shows clearly who's in the proscecutors role.
Why on earth should anybody have to provide any evidence at all to a private NGO - especially Cambodia's most controversial?
Evidence of any kind has to be provided to the court or am i wrong ?
Does APLE proof read all evidence and decide which evidence it likes and which it does not?
The fact that APLE now makes official statements like this to the
press speaks for itself. It's time for Cambodia and it's Justice
Ministry to take over and make a determination based on real "Evidence" of the kind provided by James Ricketson.
For how long does the Ministry of Justice intend to allow APLE and other such vigilante NGOs determine who is innocent and who is guilty?
Whats the definition of hypocrisy - Neeson and McCabe discrediting Fletcher because of his prior criminal history.
ReplyDeleteLicado's Director Naly Pilorge discovers some facts on sexual child abuse in Cambodia:
ReplyDeleteBack in 2003, a tight knit NGO group consisting of World Vision, APLE, Childsafe-Cambodia, Intervida, Ecpat, Terre des Hommes - Netherlands, Mlop Tapang, CWCC, Somaly Mam, Afesip and many more decided to go on a rampage and create the myth that Cambodia had become the Heaven for Western Pedophiles.
Their Ad Campaings suggested that every foreigner brainwashed by APLE's Youtube Gangstalking vigilante video and the Western media is a potential danger to Khmer children. What they all forgot to mention is the fact that according to a Unicef Report on the Issue, more than 99% of child sex abuse in Cambodia is of domestic nature. That leaves 1 % and includes Asians from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hongkong, Philippines etc.
But then, these domestic cases are of no interest to the Western media and therefore go largely underreported.
In that light Licado's recent press release is merely a grab for the straw to lure more donor funds.
Licado' s Naly Pilorge:
quote:
"Only about a third of rape cases investigated by Licadho result in a satisfactory conviction."
She forgot to mention that 99%+ of the cases are of domestic nature.
It is also unclear if Licado itself investigates any of these cases of child abuse or it lets APLE handle it.
Back in 2005 Naly Pilorge was the Registrant of the aplecambodia.org website !
A bit later both the APLE Country Director Katherine Keane and Selma Hunter quit because they were forced by Thierry Darnaudet (aple's founder) to report lies.
Back in 2014 former APLE Country Director Hang Vibol was arrested and jailed for sexual child abuse at his NGO "Our Home" in Phnom Penh. The arrest was triggered by a dispute between Thierry Darnaudet and Hang Vibol. The latter reported Thierry Darnaudet as a Pedophile or sexual child abuser to the Cambodian Authorities. The truth seems to be depending on the side that has most of the cash to convice the court.
So the question is: How much can you trust such an Organisation (aple) whose founder and former director (Thierry Darnaudet) preferres to stay in hiding in Calcutta, India where he runs a home for street children without any degree on social matters, let alone child welfare.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/analysis-and-op-ed/finding-justice-women-children-victims-sex-crimes
"why did the British Embassies in Cambodia and Thailand continue to co-operate with both governments to have Mr Fletcher tried and convicted of rape when there was significant evidence that he had not raped anyone? The only logical answer I have been able to come up with is that the Foreign & Commonwealth office was now so deeply involved in the pursuit and prosecution of Mr Fletcher that to acknowledge his right to the presumption of innocence could prove to be very embarrassing to numerous high ranking FCO officials."
ReplyDeleteThe 440 in-crowd has another reason. They say that people with inside knowledge (NGO, FCO people i guess) know that Fletcher was up to other kinds of no good, but because they can't prove it (or don't want to go to the trouble of proving it) they had him stitched up (or let him be stitched up) for crime he did not commit. The Cambodians were happy to go along with it because there is money in it for the NGO, the court, the police and the "victim." For the right price, they can deliver any verdict desired. (Just look at the arbitrary convictions and releases of opposition politicians and land activists on the whim of those with money and power.) The FCO and NGOs cooperated before and aren't helping now because they got what they wanted. Truth, legality, due process and human rights were not their priority.
Dear Anonymous 2.30
DeleteClearly, I can't comment in the veracity of whatever rumours there might be floating around but it is very dangerous (anywhere in the world) foe a person to be convicted of one crime when they can't convict him/her of another.
I think that what happened was that Peter Hogan got the ball rolling for his own perverse reasons and then Scott Neeson got on the bandwagon and tipped off the British Embassy - senior members of which clearly believed what Neeson told them and acted as they saw fit. The British Embassy then co-operated with Thai authorities to have Fletcher arrested in Bangkok and APLE ran with it - regardless of the evidence it had at its disposal (medical report) that David Fletcher had not raped Yang Dany.
Tomorrow I will publish a more detailed account of what happened, in chronological order. The problems with this case from a credibility point of view will be readily apparent.