by Bob Couttie
Lawyers are demanding bail for Olivier Van Den Bogaert, the 41-year old Belgian accused of murdering a French tourist in the resort town of Kampot, Cambodia. With inconclusive DNA assays and no conclusive evidence after a six month investigation, Van Den Bogaert’s lawyers believe there is too little evidence to hold him.
Ophelia Begnis, 25, was found dead and naked in the Kampong Bay River at about noon on 10 February this year. She had been battered with a heavy sharp object like a machete and dumped in the river sometime in the previous 12 hours. She was last seen alive at about 4:30 the previous evening cycling away from Les Manigueres, the guesthouse a little north of the main town where she was staying. Her body was found in a loop of the river some kilometres south of town.
The Phnom Penh Post quotes Van Den Bogaert’s attorney, Khun Sophal:
“Up to now, according to my inspection of the charges and the process of interrogation, I have not found any evidence for putting any burden on or charging my client yet”.
Sophal claims to have found ten witnesses, Cambodian and foreign, whose testimony would support his client’s innocence.
Earlier this year the results of a French investigation found no evidence that Van Den Bogaert was involved in the murder.
An investigation judge, Hong Sokhun Vattana, is questioning witnesses, among them a young girl who claims to have seen Begnis riding a bicycle which she later saw being dumped in the river near a durian plantation, by someone resembling Van Den Bogaert. A bicycle has been recovered but cannot be conclusively proven to be the one rented by Begnis from her guesthouse.
Hong is charged with conducting an independent investigation of the evidence. He agrees that it is taking an unusually long time. According to news reports, the investigating judge says:
“The reason that the court is taking a longer time to investigate is because the court wants to investigate this case in detail before conducting the trial.”
Van Den Bogaert could remain in pre-trial detention for up to 18 months.
More on the Kampot murder case here.