By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
Cambodian police are searching for a Ukrainian lawmaker whose name was added to the Interpol website for the alleged rape of a child in Phnom Penh four years ago, local media reported Tuesday.
The Cambodia Daily said 46-year-old People’s Front member Mykola Kniazhytsky is “wanted by the judicial authorities of Cambodia for prosecution/to serve a sentence,” citing a “wanted” notice posted by Interpol on Monday.
That notice appeared to have been removed by the next day, and neither National Police spokesperson Lieutenant General Kirth Chantharith nor Interior Ministry spokesperson General Khieu Sopheak could be reached.
Kniazhytsky strenuously denies any wrongdoing, and told the Kyiv Post on Monday that he had nothing to defend and would prove that the accusation that he raped the minor on Sep. 9, 2011 was false.
A statement released by his press office told the Kyiv Post and the Daily that the allegations are “defamatory and rigged,” and that he could not possibly have been in Phnom Penh when the alleged rape took place as he had been in Ukraine the day before.
It cited a 12-hour flight time between Kiev and Phnom Penh and the lack of direct flights as further proof of his innocence, alongside information received from Ukrainian border guards that he had not left the country at the time of the attack.
Cambodia has a reputation as something of a haven for sex offenders and child abusers. In December 2002, British singer Gary Glitter was jailed and then deported on allegations that he had been abusing young boys.
In June 2012, Cambodian police arrested Russian pedophile Alexander Trofimov, who had earlier spent just half of an eight-year sentence in a Cambodian prison before being released by a Royal pardon -- despite being jailed for the sexual abuse of at least 15 children. He was deported back to Russia that same month to stand trial for sexually abusing three young girls.
His arrest and deportation were part of a wider, Bangkok-based Interpol initiative to net 60 child abusers across the region.
Samleang Seila, country director of the anti-pedophile NGO Action Pour les Enfants, told The Anadolu Agency that his organization was not aware of the alleged rape of the minor in the case involving the Ukrainian lawmaker.
Saying that he had seen an improvement in the investigation of such crimes in Cambodia over the past 12 years, he added, “I think Cambodia has taken a strong stand to build up a positive image of the country where sex offenders are not encouraged at all.”
