Cambodia: Long-Running Biofuel Fraud Case to End This Year, Judge Says

Cambodia: Long-Running Biofuel Fraud Case to End This Year, Judge Says

The judge presiding over a long-running fraud trial centering around U.K.
businessman Gregg Fryett promised on Tuesday to bring the case to a close by
the end of next month, while also rejecting a request to call a number of
high-profile witnesses.

Mr. Fryett and his Cambodian-American associates Um Sam Ang and Soeun Denny,
and Cambodian Ouk Keo Ratanak, were jailed in 2013 over a litany of charges
related to their efforts to start a jatropha plantation in Banteay Meanchey
province that would yield biofuel.

The trial has been meandering and often heated, as Mr. Fryett has repeatedly
railed against the judges and prosecutors handling the case, as well as the
officials-two since jailed in unrelated cases-who seized his company's
equipment and ordered the arrests.

After rejecting a request from defense lawyers to call more witnesses,
including the jailed officials, Presiding Judge Chhuon Sokreasey said he was
determined to hand down a verdict within the next two months.

"I will finish by December," he said. "I hope to have cooperation from
everyone in order to avoid any more interruptions."

Judge Sokreasey claimed that the court was unable to summon judicial
officials who oversaw the case before it was transferred to Phnom Penh, and
that other witnesses had submitted satisfactory statements regarding the
allegedly fraudulent land transfers.

The case has drawn the concern of the U.K. government, which was also
investigating Mr. Fryett's U.K.-based Sustainable Growth Group over
suspicions that it was a Ponzi scheme before he was arrested in Cambodia.

"We have raised our concerns over delays in the legal process with the
Cambodian authorities and will continue to do so," the U.K.'s Foreign and
Commonwealth Office said in June.

Following the morning hearing, Mr. Fryett said Tuesday marked the 100th time
he has appeared in court since the trial began in July 2014. He said it was
particularly important for lawyers to be able to question Mao Malay, the
wife of former military commander Ke Kim Yan because she owned the land that
was allegedly illegally leased and cleared.

"It's her land. She [did] not transfer it to us," he said. "So if there is
clearing of the land or documents that are wrong, because she is the
documented owner of the land, this is the problem for her, not for us."

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Ref:
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/long-running-biofuel-fraud-case-end-year-
judge-says-120041/

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com