Kiss and tell case?

18-month jail sentence for a kiss

14 Jan 2009
By Ung Chamroeun
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

On Monday 12 January, the Banteay Meanchey provincial tribunal handed a rather severe sentence. The accused, a moto-taxi driver, found an original mean to get paid for his service from a client who did not have money to pay for her fees.
25-year-old Kim Koun received the sentence for sexual harassment following a complaint raised by a 20-year-old woman. According to the Rasmey Kampuchea newspaper, the plaintiff accused Kim Koun of planting a kiss on her while the pair did not even know each other. In front of the judge, the accused man did not hide the facts. However, he explained that in April 2008, the young woman used his service to travel to several places. “I asked her for the fees owed for the transport service, but she told me that she had no money. I decided to give her a kiss in lieu of the fees,” Kim Koun argued. In spite of these details, he was nevertheless handed down an 18-month jail sentence for sexual harassment. The amount of monetary compensation has not been fixed yet.