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Australian filmmaker James Ricketson found guilty of espionage in Cambodia
Australian filmmaker James Ricketson has been sentenced to six years in a Cambodian prison, after being found guilty of spying for an unnamed country. The 69-year-old filmmaker was arrested in Cambodia in June 2017 after flying a drone over a rally organized by the Cambodia National Rescue Party, an opposition group that was later dissolved by the government.
A statement released by Ricketson's family Friday said they were "absolutely devastated" by the verdict and sentence. "We are in utter shock at this outcome and that James, an innocent Australian, has been sentenced so harshly. Our family lives this tragedy daily," his family said.
Ricketson's lawyer Sam Onn Kong told CNN that Ricketson would seek a royal pardon, which could take up to a month to be decided. Meanwhile his family urged the Australian government to intervene, saying that Ricketson's health had suffered during the 15 months he's spent in Prey Sar prison, in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @09:08PM (2 children)
I visited Cambodia a few years back and they are really pushy and extort the crap out of tourists while having a pretty restrictive culture. I can totally believe that some government officials were blinded by "zomg drone recording a political opposition rally!" as some sort of spying. Repressive regimes are paranoid, as the US is finding out with the little trump tyrant.
Do not go to Cambodia, go to Thailand or Vietnam instead. Not without their own issues, but Cambodia needs to progress a little more before I'd recommend it to anyone.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:03PM
no. don't go to vietnam either. thailand is iffy enough, i gather from the scare-o-sphere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 02 2018, @07:35PM
Angkor Wat is one the the greatest places in the world. Also the food is amazing and cheap (Indian/Asian).
Go to Cambodia.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by easyTree on Friday August 31 2018, @09:14PM (3 children)
Not to visit Cambodia before the end of time. Just before USA trip :/
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @09:43PM (1 child)
First AC poster here, 100% don't come to the US. I only came back because I live here. The technological surveillance bullshit is creepy and sadly we are exporting it everywhere else as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @04:59AM
Bullshit, UK did it first.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01 2018, @05:47AM
Good luck even getting into the US after this post. The NSA never forgets and the TSA will be happy to send you straight back home after groping you for a bit and then having you questioned for hours by nosy wannabe-spooks demanding you hand over your social media passwords while copying all your hard drives in the back room. I guess that's still better than getting in but being thrown in prison, but barely.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Friday August 31 2018, @09:27PM (5 children)
At least he didn't try to film the crowds at the Trump inauguration.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Friday August 31 2018, @09:58PM (3 children)
Crowds?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @10:42PM (2 children)
Groups of two (or more) people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @11:05PM (1 child)
Well I guess there WAS Trump and whomever had the displeasure of swearing him into office.
Semantics FTW!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @11:29PM
I specifically recall there were a bunch of mormons and other religitards there, mainly to molest children as usual, and show exactly how separate church and state really are (not at all).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @10:08PM
There was a crowd?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 31 2018, @09:44PM
Austro natives should genocide the limey criminals.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday September 01 2018, @12:07AM
Current govt pride themselves to have "stopped the boats". The way they did it:
1. declared that any refugee coming by boat will never be resettled in Australia...
2. ... so that anyone who did was interned into camps on Pacific Islands
But then they had to resettled them somewhere. One of these places: Cambodia
Refugee deal with Cambodia a gag for Australia [phnompenhpost.com] (Sept 2017)
Peter Dutton insists Australia has a good working relationship with the Cambodian government [sbs.com.au] (Feb 2018)
Cambodia's Hun Sen 'preparing' to receive more refugees under deal with Australia [abc.net.au] (Jul 2018)
Karma, eh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0