Cambodia’s child ice mule to be released from notorious Prey Sar prison

CHHAY Reaksmey, Cambodia’s 14-year-old drug mule, is to be released from notorious Prey Sar prison after a judge ruled her jailing was “unjust”.

Tiny Chhay Reaksmey, 14, has spent eight months for alleged ice trafficking inside Cambodia’s notorious Prey Sar Prison in Phnom Penh where the former torture facility Toul Sleng (above) is located.

CAMBODIA’S baby-faced drug mule, Chhay Reaksmey, who was arrested for ice trafficking at the age of 12, is to be released from Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Sar prison today.

Reaksmey, whose arrest photograph in a tiny pink velour tracksuit pointing a finger at bags of crystal methamphetamine shocked the world, will be released on bail.

A judge ordered the release of Reaksmey, who has since turned 14 in the squalid and stinking confines of the overcrowded prison, the Phnom Penh Post reported.

At a Phnom Penh Municipal Court hearing, Judge Svay Tonh found Reaksmey was wrongfully imprisoned for drug trafficking because she was arrested 10 days prior to turning 14, the age of criminal responsibility in Cambodia.

Reaksmey was originally arrested at the age of 12, along with her father, on drug trafficking charges and held in a re-education centre.

Cambodia’s baby-faced drug mule, Chhay Reaksmey, 14 (above) will be freed today from the notorious Prey Sar prison where she has spent eight months. Picture: Cambodia Police.

A Cambodian police officer at the entrance of a prison at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Picture: EPA/MAK REMISSA

Arrested again at 13, she was sent to Prey Sar, which is infamous for its terrible conditions and harsh treatment of prisoners, corrupt guards and rampant drug trade and resident drug lords live like kings.

The prison has housed Australian drug dealers and disgraced British entertainer and paedophile, Gary Glitter.

While prosecutors and her defence lawyers argued about her age, Reaksmey lived like most of the prison’s inmates in filthy, massively overcrowded cells with a lack of running water.

The child’s lawyers claimed she had been detained in prison illegally.

Ouk Vandeth, Reakmey’s lawyer and director of International Bridges to Justice, said the judge had concluded from her small stature that Reaksmey could not possibly be 20 years old, as the police report had claimed.

Kandal prison, 10km from Prey Sar, is one of Phnom Penh’s infamous network of correctional facilities. Picture: AFP/Getty.

Young soldiers in the military hospital near Prey Sar prison where the 14-year-old alleged drug dealer walks from today. Picture: Lightrocket/Getty.

“The court just went ahead based on the police report, which didn’t include her birth certificate,” he said.

A drug trial hearing will still proceed, but Reaksmey would not face further jail time even if she is found guilty.

Seng Liv, the girl’s mother, said she was “happy beyond compare”, but feared Reaksmey would be again threatened by local traffickers and forced to sell drugs, which Liv claims was the cause of her prior arrest.

Police chief Huy Hean said there had been no mistake in Reaksmey’s arrest.

“We did our best when we arrested her. But lacking some information, the court released her,” Hean said.

He also claimed drug crime had dropped by 99 per cent since he arrested Reaksmey.

Juvenile rehabilitation organisation, This Life Cambodia, told the Phnom Penh Post that Cambodian children were often held in pre-trial detention where they waited months for a court hearing.

A female prisoner walks out of the prison with her children, at Prey Sar prison where Reaksmey was held in squalid conditions for eight months. Picture: EPA/MAK REMISSA.

Originally published as Cambodia’s child ice mule to be released from notorious Prey Sar prison