The Phnom Penh Municipal Court charged a 23-year-old former student with extortion over a case of revenge porn that saw him allegedly post intimate photographs of his ex-girlfriend on a group chat and try to coerce $500 from her.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesperson Kuch Kimlong said on Sunday that Ran Sokhun had confessed to the accusations against him, but disputed some matters with regards to his 20-year-old victim’s account of the crimes.
Police records said that Sokhun had received several intimate photographs from the victim while the couple were engaged in a two-year romantic relationship from 2016 until the end of last year, when a “disagreement” caused the couple to go their separate ways.
Shortly after the breakup, Sokhun privately forwarded a series of photographs and videos taken during their relationship to the victim and demanded that she pay him $500 to make them go away.
The court records said that in November of last year, the families of the couple had agreed to a contract stating that Sokhun would delete the photographs and videos from his phone and agree never to post them online.
However, according to court records, Sokhun breached the conditions of the agreement at 7:15am on Thursday when he shared the content on a Facebook Messenger group chat.
Sokhun was apprehended at 6pm the same day after the victim’s family reached out to the suspect to meet at Niroth Pagoda in Chbar Ampov district’s Nirouth commune.
Kimlong said that a case file had been forwarded to an investigating judge.
“The prosecutor charged the person and sent the case to the investigatiing judge for a final decision,” he told The Post.