Ten Westerners arrested in Cambodia for allegedly posting photos on social media showing themselves engaged in sexually suggestive dancing may have offended local standards of morality, but should be expelled from the country rather than jailed, one of their lawyers said Tuesday.
In this file photo dated Jan. 27, 2018, issued by Cambodian National Police, a group of foreigners stand after they were arrested for "dancing pornographically" at a party in Siem Reap town, near the country's famed Angkor Wat temple complex.
The 10 — from the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand — were arrested last Thursday when police raided a party at a rented villa in the northwestern town of Siem Reap and found people "dancing pornographically" at an event organizers called a pub crawl. Siem Reap is near the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.
The detainees face up to a year in prison if convicted, and if they go to trial, it would likely happen in the next few months, said one of their lawyers, Sourng Sophea. He said the families of some of the detainees have contacted him by phone from overseas, but none had come yet to visit.
In this file photo dated Jan. 27, 2018, issued by Cambodian National Police, a group of foreigners stand after they were arrested for "dancing pornographically" at a party in Siem Reap town, near the country's famed Angkor Wat temple complex.
Two other lawyers have joined the defense, and visited the detainees in jail on Tuesday. One of them, Chhouy Sopheak, said the 10 were in good health and detained in acceptable conditions. He said they gave their versions of events and denied any wrongdoing.
Sourng Sophea said some of the photos posted by his clients showed them at a party, some drinking by a swimming pool and some of the women in bikinis, but none showed them having sex or exposing themselves. According to the law, he said, they should be deported or have their visas canceled, but should not be held in pretrial detention.
In this file photo dated Jan. 27, 2018, issued by Cambodian National Police, a group of foreigners stand after they were arrested for "dancing pornographically" at a party in Siem Reap town, near the country's famed Angkor Wat temple complex.
"I admit that they have done something wrong according to morality in Cambodian society, but their crimes did not warrant them being charged or put in jail," Sourng Sophea said by phone.
He said that when the 10 had been taken into custody but not yet charged, he sent a three -page note to the Siem Reap provincial police and prosecutors, asserting that they had not committed any serious wrongdoing, were innocent of producing pornography, and should be released, but was turned down.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan and India on Saturday decried remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden describing them as “xenophobic” countries that do not welcome immigrants, which the president said during a campaign fundraising event earlier in the week.
Japan said Biden's judgment was not based on an accurate understanding of its policy, while India rebutted the comment, defending itself as the world’s most open society.
Biden grouped Japan and India as “xenophobic” countries, along with Russia and China as he tried to explain their struggling economies, contrasting the four with the strength of the U.S. as a nation of immigrants.
Japan is a key U.S. ally, and both Japan and India are part of the Quad, a U.S.-led informal partnership that also includes Australia in countering increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.
Just weeks ago, Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on an official visit, as the two leaders restated their “unbreakable alliance” and agreed to reinforce their security ties in the face of China’s threat in the Indo-Pacific.
Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi also made a state visit to Washington last year, when he was welcomed by business and political leaders.
The White House said Biden meant no offense and was merely stressing that the U.S. was a nation of immigrants, saying he had no intention of undermining the relationship with Japan.
Japan is aware of Biden's remark as well as the subsequent clarification, a Japanese government official said Saturday, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The official said it was unfortunate that part of Biden's speech was not based on an accurate understanding of Japanese policies, and that Japan understands that Biden made the remark to emphasize the presence of immigrants as America’s strength.
Japan-U.S. relations are “stronger than ever” as Prime Minister Kishida showed during his visit to the U.S. in April, the official said.
In New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday also rebutted Biden’s comment, saying India was the most open society in the world.
``I haven’t seen such an open, pluralistic, and diverse society anywhere in the world. We are actually not just not xenophobic, we are the most open, most pluralistic and in many ways the most understanding society in the world,” Jaishankar said at a roundtable organized by the Economic Times newspaper.
Jaishankar also noted that India’s annual GDP growth is 7% and said, “You check some other countries’ growth rate, you will find an answer.” The U.S. economy grew by 2.5% in 2023, according to government figures.
At a hotel fundraiser Wednesday, where the donor audience was largely Asian American, Biden said the upcoming U.S. election was about “freedom, America and democracy” and that the nation’s economy was thriving “because of you and many others.”
“Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said. “Look, think about it. Why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants.”
Japan has been known for a strict stance on immigration. But in recent years, it has eased its policies to make it easier for foreign workers to come and stay in Japan as a way to mitigate its declining births and rapidly shrinking population. The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to a record low since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899.
India, which has the world’s largest population, enacted a new citizenship law earlier this year by setting religious criteria that allows fast-tracking naturalization for Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, while excluding Muslims.
AP writers Ashok Sharma in New Delhi and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - President Joe Biden arrives on Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, April 30, 2024.. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
