LETTER TO THE EDITOR

ASEAN Football Federation vice president Ravy Khek - NR photo

Ravy beat her up, kicking her on the floor, sending her to the hospital. He threatened to kill her, brandishing a pistol and loading the bullets right in front of her

Cambodia's Kafkaesque Court System

by Michael Hawley

Saturday January 29, 2011

I recently flew to Cambodia to watch a Supreme Court trial - a divorce trial, of all things. I had real interest: the defendant was my wife, Nina, a Cambodian-born American. She had the spectacular misfortune to be married to Ravy Khek: a Cambodian hustler who makes Tiger Woods look like a Boy Scout. Ravy sports a bonus gold star: he is the first man in the world convicted as a criminal adulterer under Cambodian law. But that only scratches the surface.

Ravy was president of the Cambodian Football Federation and a Secretary of State in the Ministry of Commerce. He's now the vice president of the ASEAN Football Federation. The Kheks are one of Cambodia's "power" clans. He and Nina enjoyed a fancy wedding at the Royal Palace, nationally televised, with King Sihanouk presiding.

Within five years, the marriage collapsed. Ravy cheated - a lot. While Nina sought fertility treatments, Ravy spawned illegitimate kids with more than one mistress. She tried marriage counseling, but the odious cheating, not to mention the nude photos of Ravy's chippies that turned up on his cell phone, left her livid. Who wouldn't be? She asked for a divorce. Ravy beat her up, kicking her on the floor, sending her to the hospital. He threatened to kill her, brandishing a pistol and loading the bullets right in front of her. He stormed out of the marriage. He abandoned Nina, left their house, cleaned out their bank accounts, took up with a mistress, had another kid, bought another house and some fancy cars, and carried on as if he had never been married. Ravy disgraced the marriage.

A year went by. Ravy never returned. He never lifted a finger to resolve the marriage. Nina is a responsible woman. She had no choice. She filed for divorce in the proper way.

It took years in court. Ravy's lawyers dodged and delayed. After the lower court finally ruled, Ravy appealed. He wasn't happy with a 50-50 settlement. He demanded 100% of everything. It's millions of dollars in assets: houses, land, income. Nina had no choice but to defend herself.

And so, after spending nearly as many years trying to get divorced from this jackass as she did being married to him, Nina found herself a defendant in the Supreme Court. Ravy was unhappy because, his lawyers alleged, Nina was infertile. (As if that insult justifies criminal adultery?!) They claimed Ravy deserved ALL of the assets because every penny of income was a "gift" from his father: money that came from a company based in Singapore - the notorious Cambodian Shipping Corporation. It amounted to millions of dollars. In Cambodia, if you receive millions in cash this way, do you need to pay tax on it? That shipping company had its concession revoked by Prime Minister Hun Sen - for disgracing Cambodia in the eyes of the world - yet those paychecks to Mr. Khek continue to this day. Ravy demanded that Nina immediately be tossed out of the house she had maintained alone after he left. And on top of that, as a final, arrogant insult, he demanded $200,000 in damages from Nina for "emotional distress."

It was outrageous, and the Supreme Court threw it out. Five years after disgracing your marriage, you don't turn up in court and claim that - surprise! - your marital income was some sort of family "gift" laundered through shipping companies. Clearly there were millions of dollars in consulting salary income and corporate stock profits. There was property paid with a five year mortgage and jointly owned. The President of the Supreme Court shredded Khek's specious argument, saying: the clock starts ticking the day you get married, and it stops the day you get divorced. During that time, ALL assets acquired by either party are community property. That even includes the new house and cars and stuff acquired by the husband after abandoning his wife but before formally divorcing. It is all community property. The law says it all must be accounted for and divided 50-50. Period.

Think this is done? Ha. The law may be clear, and the Supreme Court may have ruled, but Nina now must grind this through the Appeals Court to get it enacted. Any reasonable ex-husband would look at that situation and conclude: there's nothing left to argue; let's just settle privately with a five minute phone call. Going to court will be far more expensive and risk public exposure. Perhaps that's why Mr. Khek himself did not even appear in court.

Which path did Ravy choose? Neither. He filed a bogus CRIMINAL charge against Nina. He alleged that she had presented a forged document - it's an invoice with his name and signature requesting $16,800 in a regular monthly consulting payment from the shipping corporation. Now, this paperwork has been in three different courts for five years, and suddenly he slaps Nina with an investigation of forgery? Frankly, it doesn't matter a damn whether he signed his own invoices or had a flunky sign for him. What matters is: the income and assets, which must be divided fairly. There is only one convicted criminal here, and it's Mr. Khek.

Mr. Khek's dirtball tactic is aimed at putting my wife in jail. Anything to bully her out of a fair settlement. And in Cambodia, you can easily do it: just pay a criminal prosecutor, make up some ridiculous baloney, and play the dirtiest pool you can. In fact, in Cambodia, the standard toxic response to an article like this one is to fire up a defamation lawsuit against me, or against anyone else who can be connected to me.

Mr. Khek and the Cambodian judiciary could go to school on Tiger's putt. What Tiger did was atrocious, a worldwide disgrace. But what did he do after being exposed? He apologized profusely, tearfully and publicly; he checked into a clinic to treat his sex addiction; and he and Elin divorced, managing to settle child custody and divvy a complex estate worth more than a billion dollars. It all took a few months. Tiger certainly didn't have bastard kids, or beat his wife, threaten to kill her, abandon her, or sue her in an attempt to dodge and delay and screw her out of every penny, drawing things out over a five year period.

In other countries, men like Mr. Khek are punished. They are publicly vilified. They are ordered to forfeit their assets, pay a lifetime of damages, and might wind up in jail for tax evasion. Most judges detest abusers. Not in Cambodia. Apparently, not only is the Cambodian Court system powerless to deal with such jerks, they are routinely manipulated by them.

Marriage and family are the foundation of a healthy society. One can only hope that Cambodians around the world will take time to learn from this asinine case; that bad husbands will be rebuked in the strongest possible way; and that courts will stand up strongly to defend victims of abuse. Who knows, perhaps Mr. Khek will decide to set a better example for his country. Meanwhile, if you are a foreign woman being wooed by a high-ranking Cambodian man, look before you leap.

Michael Hawley is a computer pioneer, a former professor at M.I.T., a longtime charitable supporter of schools and students in Cambodia, and overjoyed to be the loving husband to Nina You.