Thais Release Cambodian Loggers

[geovalin]

Four Cambodians imprisoned in Thailand for almost two years on charges of illegally logging luxury wood were released on Friday and returned to Cambodia, according to police. The four were repatriated on Friday, said Touch Ra, chief of Khmer-Thai relations at Choam Sangam International Border Checkpoint in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district.
 

“We received the four Cambodians that the Thai authorities handed over, initially to the immigration officers, through our checkpoint two days ago,” he told Khmer Times yesterday, adding that they were allowed to return to their homes the same day. Provincial deputy immigration police chief Orn Savuth said the four were arrested by Thai authorities in December 2014 after illegally crossing into Thailand from Oddar Meanchey’s Trapaing Prasat district searching for luxury wood.
 

He identified the four as Chin Thorn, 24, Nom Mao, 25, Ly Sophorn, 23, and Oum Ang, 34. All came from Trapaing Prasat district, he said, and had signed an agreement with Cambodian police, promising not to attempt such illegal activities again. Experts have long noted that rural poverty and the high price paid for increasingly rare timber is pushing some to take greater risks, often by illegally crossing into Thailand.

 

read more http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/28756/thais-release-cambodian-loggers/

[SOTIRIOS]

...weren't they working for someone....???