Supreme Court upholds verdict in 2016 surrogacy case

 


Buth Reaksmey Kongkea  

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction of 15 years in jail for a Chinese man entangled in a surrogacy case that dates back to 2016, and caught the attention of international media then. 

Although Cambodia does not have a specific law on surrogacy, it is a criminal offence as per the existing laws in the country.

Presiding Judge Nil Nonn said, “The Supreme Court upholds the punishment meted out to 43-year-old convict Wu Wenjun because the Judges’ Council of the Supreme Court had confirmed him guilty under Article 16 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation shall be punished with imprisonment from 15 to 20 years in prison.”

Judge Nonn said that Wenjun, a Chinese national and former owner of a Chinese-owned-garment factory who was living in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, hired a Cambodian woman to bear his child and then ‘smuggled’ the baby to China in 2016. 

Denying child trafficking allegations, Wenjun claimed that he hired Hun Daneth, 36, a worker in his garment factory for $10,000 to bear his baby as his wife was unhealthy to get pregnant. He also told the Friday hearing that he was trying to take the baby to China to show his parents and share the good news of “finally having a baby of his own”. 

Wenjun and Daneth were arrested on June 15, 2017 while Wenjun was trying to get the travel documents for his son after a year Daneth gave birth to him. 

The court records say Phnom Penh Municipal Court has sentenced Hun Daneth to three months in prison but the term of her sentence shall be completely suspended under the ‘Intermediary between an adoptive parent and pregnant woman’.

  

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