After two years in Cambodian prison, a Danish man has been released.

[ASEAN NOW]

 

According to BT, Danish Sejr Gundel has returned to his mother in Denmark after spending two years in a Cambodian prison under harsh conditions.

The Dane was imprisoned in 2019 after being apprehended by Cambodian authorities with 0.1 grams of methamphetamine in what Sejr Gundel believes was a set-up. Sejr, who was residing in Thailand with his wife at the time and managing a restaurant, had gone to Cambodia to renew his visa. Sejr made the mistake of bringing a little bag of cocaine to his guesthouse room during this visit, and he was detained.

 

“It was all a ruse. I was convinced to take the bag for free while inebriated and then advised to take it to my guesthouse room. A few minutes later, cops began to arrive. In a matter of two seconds, this mistake lost me everything,” Sejr explains and adds.
“An Argentine and three other people were detained at the same time. That's how cops, lawyers, and other professionals make a lot of money down there.”

 

The conditions at the Cambodian prison, according to Sejr Gundel, were "terrible." He claims that hygiene was non-existent, and that 43 individuals were crowded into the same cell in the sweltering heat of the prison, which reached 45 degrees. Sejr was also terrified of the other inmates with whom he shared a cell.

 

“The majority of the people were there to smoke drugs, but there were also murderers, pedophiles, and innocent people in there. The man who was laying next to me on the floor had slit his sleeping father's throat. As a result, I wasn't getting enough sleep,” Sejr Gundel explains.

 

Sejr Gundel also explains that he had to fight other inmates on several occasions to prove that he was capable of self-defense.

 

Henrik Hasseris Olesen, a Danish lawyer with many contacts in Cambodia, was instrumental in assisting Sejr in prison. Knowing how the system works, this was something he was delighted to undertake.

 

“Some could argue that he is responsible for his faith. This is true, but you also have to consider what is acceptable when he is imprisoned in a group cell with vermin and dirt in the middle of nowhere in Cambodia in tropical heat. He had 0,1 gram of methamphetamine on him, which is about the size of a cut-off fingernail and can be smoked in five minutes for DKK 100 on the street in Copenhagen. “The only punishment back home in Denmark would be a fine of DKK 3000 if you could even buy that tiny a quantity,” Henrik Hasseris Olesen explains.

[ChaiyaTH]

Which also must be the only reason he is released right away in Denmark, instead of having to sit out the remaining time back home. I believe his story right away as drugs is sold anywhere and everywhere in Cambodia, this doesn't make any sense aside of being a setup.