Seven Chinese nationals accused of kidnapping and illegally detaining three men before attempting to extort money from their families in 2015 were convicted and sentenced to between 15 and 25 years in prison yesterday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.
Presiding Judge Ros Pesith said the seven men – Dai Xiao Hui, 35, Hue Wutong, 46, Li Xihua, 59, Xu Cheng, 41, Wang Jie, 35, Zhang Zhong Sheng, 41, and Chou Chealong, 45 – were all casino gamblers and loan sharks representing the Sai Min Company based inside a leading hotel here before they were charged with “arrest, detention and unlawful confinement with aggravating circumstance” under article 253 of the Criminal Code.
Mr. Chou, who is at large, was identified as the mastermind of the operation and was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.
Mr. Dai, Mr. Hue, Mr. Li, Mr. Xu and Mr. Wang were each sentenced to 15 years in prison. The charges against Mr. Zhang were dropped and he was released from prison after the verdict was announced.
“Zhang Zhong Sheng is not guilty as accused, therefore the court decided to drop his charges and orders his immediate release,” Mr. Pesith said.
The men were arrested last December 13 and 14 when police raided their rented home in Phnom Penh. They first raided a house in Meanchey district’s Chak Angre Krom commune and then another in Chamkarmon district’s Tuol Svay Prey I commune.
When police entered the Chak Angre Krom commune home, they found three men detained there. But only two of the victims – 56-year-old Guo Leng Fong and 35-year-old Chang Yun – filed complaints against the seven men.
Major Leng Song, deputy chief of the Municipal Military Police in Phnom Penh, said police discovered the hideouts after local residents in Tuol Rokar village said they saw someone throwing glasses and empty cans out a window.
“Military police went to arrest them after we received a report from local residents that heavy things were always being thrown from a nearby house. It seemed like someone was trying to say something from the house,” he said.
“When military police entered the house, they found the victims locked up and detained inside the house.”
During their trial in September, all six men confessed to working as loan sharks for Sai Min Company. They said their job was to bring clients to NagaWorld casino and loan money to them if they ran out.
The men said they did bring the victims to the rented houses and detained them, but claimed they only did it because their boss, Mr. Chou, told them to.
Mr. Li said he was hired by Mr. Chou to contact gamblers who wanted to borrow money to spend at the casino.
He was paid $300 per month and received free food and accommodation at the Hotel.
“I recognize that I gave them money to borrow for gambling games on behalf of Sai Min Company. But I did not arrest or detain them or beat them,” he said.
Mr. Guo says that on August 13 last year, he went to the casino and lost a total of $6,500.
The next day, he borrowed $12,000 from Mr. Li, subsequently losing it all by the end of the day.
After losing the money, a group of five men brought him to meet Mr. Li in a room on the 12th floor of the Hotel. He said they threatened to kidnap him if his family did not pay them.
“After losing the games, they caught me and detained me to extort my family for the period of three hours in their room,” he said.
“But because I did not have money to give them, they detained me at a rented house located behind the Chinese embassy in Chamkarmon district’s Tuol Svay Prey I commune. They detained me for 75 days.”
He added that after his 75-day stay at the house, he was moved to another home in Chak Angre Krom commune. “During my detention, they always beat and tortured me. They forced me to call my family and order them to send the owed money. They gave me rice to eat only one time per day,” he said.
In total, Mr. Guo spent more than four months in captivity before he was rescued.
Mr. Chang said that on December 11, 2015, he borrowed $2,000 from a group of Chinese gamblers at the casino. He quickly lost all the money.
At 10pm that night, he was grabbed by the six men on trial yesterday and held in the room on the 12th floor. They repeatedly called his wife to repay the money, but she was unable to, so at 12am on December 12, he was taken in a Camry to the house in Chak Angre Krom commune.
He was beaten, tortured and held there by three men until all of the detainees were freed by police the next day.
His wife, who had received a number of extortion calls from the men on trial, filed a complaint with the military police when Mr. Chang had been gone for more than a day and urged them to find her husband.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/31674/loan-sharks-caught-in-net/
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