Cambodian court upholds Frenchman’s brothel sentence

   PHNOM PENH, January 15, 2008  – A 52-year-old French bar owner has lost an
appeal against his conviction for running a brothel that catered to foreign
men in the Cambodian capital, a court official Tuesday.
   Bruno Fumat and his Cambodian girlfriend were sentenced in 2006 to six
years in prison each by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for allowing their
waitresses to have sex with foreign guests.
   Fumat filed an appeal last year, but prosecutor Ngeth Sarath told AFP that
the appeals court had upheld the conviction against Bruno in a hearing Monday.
   "Bruno still denied the sex crime at his bar. But the girls told the court
that they did have sex with guests at the bar," he said.
   Ngeth Sarath said the women charged their clients 10 dollars each time they
had sex at the bar, and had to give three dollars to Fumat.
   Cambodia has struggled for years to curtail its sex trade, mainly by
cracking down on suspected paedophiles.
AFP