VZCZCXRO1939
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #2221/01 3560119
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 220119Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7743
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 002221 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL CB KJUS
SUBJECT: HENG POV'S UNCEREMONIOUS RETURN TO CAMBODIA 
 
REF:  PHNOM PENH 2210 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary.  Returned from Malaysia on December 21 by 
private charter plane, former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov is 
currently in Prey Sar prison outside Phnom Penh.  The RGC tried to 
keep Heng Pov's arrival under wraps for as long as possible, but the 
media caught wind of the news in the early afternoon, and the story 
spread throughout Phnom Penh throughout the day.  End Summary. 
 
Heng Pov is Returned to Cambodia 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  On December 21, under heavy escort of armed police, RGC 
officials transferred Heng Pov from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court 
to Prey Sar Prison after he was deported from Malaysia earlier the 
same day.  Heng Pov, 51 years old and the former Phnom Penh 
municipal police commissioner, departed the court in an official 
vehicle following a one-hour court interrogation.  The court 
officials did not identify who questioned him nor the line of 
questioning pursued during the session.  Ouk Savuth, Prosecutor of 
the Court, told Embassy Political FSN that court officials 
questioned Pov about crimes he is suspected of committing in 
Cambodia.  The prosecutor, added that as a convicted criminal, Heng 
Pov could not escape justice. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Prime Minister Hun Sen sacked Heng Pov on July 27, 2006 
from his position as Undersecretary of State for the Ministry of 
Interior and advisor to the Prime Minister.  Following his removal 
from the government, the Municipal Court proceeded with an 
investigation and subsequent issuance of an arrest warrant in July 
2006 for crimes he was suspected of committing while he was serving 
as municipal police commissioner.  The arrest warrant, however, was 
issued after Heng Pov had already fled to Singapore and Malaysia. 
The court later convicted Heng Pov in absentia on September 18 to 18 
years in prison for the murder of Municipal Court Judge Sok 
Sethamony. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  During Pov's court appearance, journalists, human rights 
workers, and members of the public were not allowed to observe the 
proceedings and nearly one hundred police equipped with rifles and 
riot gear surrounded the court; traffic around the court was 
prohibited.  Sources from the court said Chiv Keng, President of the 
Municipal Court, questioned Pov himself before filing the required 
legal documents to detain the already convicted former municipal 
police chief at Prey Sar prison. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Witnesses who followed Pov's deportation said he was 
flown to Cambodia from Malaysia by charter flight, which landed at 
the military airport near Phnom Penh's international airport at 
13:20.  According to one witness, Cambodian police put Heng Pov 
immediately into a waiting police vehicle and drove him directly to 
the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. 
 
¶6.  (U)  Initial press reports indicate that Malaysia's Supreme 
Court ruled that Heng Pov would be deported from Malaysia to 
Cambodia, overturning a lower court's decision that would have 
permitted Heng Pov to leave Malaysia but not necessarily face 
deportation to Cambodia.  Following the court's ruling, Heng Pov was 
taken to the airport by a Cambodian Embassy vehicle that had been 
stationed outside the courthouse awaiting the verdict. 
 
¶7.  (U)  On December 6, 2006, Finland granted an entry visa to Heng 
Pov on humanitarian grounds - a decision that had angered the 
Cambodian government.  On December 7, Hor Namhong, Deputy Prime 
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International 
Cooperation, sent a strongly-worded letter of protest to the Finnish 
Government (reftel). 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  A Singaporean Embassy official in Phnom Penh noted that 
the Cambodian government had pressured its Ambassador repeatedly on 
the subject of Heng Pov during the latter's incarceration in 
Singaporean detention.  He noted that prior to the Singaporean 
Ambassador's departure from Phnom Penh for the holidays, FM Hor 
Namhong had called the Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry to clarify 
the GOS position that Heng Pov would not/not be permitted to enter 
Singapore from Malaysia, should the Malaysian court release Heng Pov 
to leave the country.  The Singaporean Embassy official noted that 
despite having a Finnish visa in his passport, Heng Pov lacked a 
valid travel document as his passport had been cancelled; therefore, 
the Singaporean government had been clear to Heng Pov and his 
lawyers that he would not be permitted entry to Singapore - even to 
transit the airport. 
 
¶9.  (U)  As the day progressed and news regarding Heng Pov's return 
became known to the media, the story was broadcast on the radio.  By 
day's end, people on the streets were talking about the news. 
Pol/Econ Chief left a meeting at the Central Bank and all the guards 
were gathered in a corner of the parking lot listening to a radio 
and discussing Heng Pov's return. 
 
 
PHNOM PENH 00002221  002 OF 002 
 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Heng Pov's return is good news to the RGC, who has 
pressed both the Singaporean and Malaysian governments to return 
Heng Pov to Cambodia to serve his sentence.  Government sources 
close to the MOI have noted that National Police Commissioner Hok 
Lundy has made Heng Pov's return a priority for the MOI and a 
personal mission given Heng Pov's accusations against Hok Lundy. 
NGOs and the political opposition, however, believe that Heng Pov, 
who had been a police officer since the 1980s, knows the secrets of 
many unsolved politically-motivated crimes in Cambodia - and will 
not be able to shed light on the facts surrounding these events from 
a Cambodian prison cell.  We have urged the government to respect 
Cambodian law and the RGC's international human rights obligations 
in their treatment of Heng Pov, and will continue to underscore 
these themes in our discussions with RGC interlocutors. 
 
MUSSOMELI