Cambodia's ambassador to S. Korea faces up to 15 years in jail for corruption charges

A Cambodian court on Thursday charged Cambodia's ambassador to South Korea Suth Dina with two counts - unlawful exploitation and abuse of power - which could lead to up to 15 years in prison, Om Yintieng, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), said.

Dina had worked as the ambassador to South Korea for 25 months until he was taken into custody on Monday by the ACU following a raft of complaints against the envoy.

Speaking at a press conference, Yintieng said the ACU had found that Dina has 7.2 million U.S. dollars in cash outside the bank, up from 4.2 million U.S. dollars in 2013.

Also, the envoy possessed 12.74 kilograms of gold, as well as several houses and pieces of land, he added.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court had charged Dina with unlawful exploitation and abuse of power, said Yintieng, adding that the charge of unlawful exploitation could carry a prison term of two to five years and the abuse of power could face between five and 10 years in jail.

"The ACU has concrete evidence to prove that Suth Dina had embezzled 116,995 U.S. dollars from selling visa stickers and withdrew over 180,000 U.S. dollars from the embassy's administrative budget for informal salary expenses during his 25 months as the ambassador," he said.

Moreover, the controversial ambassador had secretly opened a won-currency bank account under the embassy's name in order to hold compensation paid by the insurance companies for Cambodian migrant workers who died while working in South Korea, he added. Enditem