Two Vietnamese women were sentenced yesterday by Phnom Penh Municipal Court to two-and-a-half years in prison each for trafficking five Vietnamese women to have sex with wealthy men in a hotel.

The guilty women are Vietnamese nationals Le Thiyim, 25, and Phoeung Mai Seang, 32, said judge Mong Mony Sorphea. The court fined them 5 million riel each, about $1,250, which the judge said would be to put in the national budget.

The women were arrested on March 25 following a raid on a hotel in the capital’s Tuol Kork district, said Keo Thea, deputy chief of the municipal Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit.

Thea said that during the raid, police rescued five young Vietnamese women, aged 19 to 21.

The five women said they had sex with clients for bewteen $50 to $100 per session and paid 50 per cent of the proceeds to the two accused, according to Thea.

The accused and their defence lawyers could not be reached for comment yesterday.