An elderly German tourist whom police claim molested two minors was in a taxi to the airport yesterday on his way to board a flight out of the country when anti-human trafficking forces pulled him over on Russian Boulevard and arrested him.

The 69-year-old man is accused of persuading two Cambodian boys to sit with him by the riverside in Daun Penh district, where he allegedly provided money in exchange for sexual services.

Lieutenant Colonel Keo Thea, chief of Phnom Penh municipality’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection police, said the alleged acts began at the start of the Khmer New Year weekend and went on for three evenings straight.

Both of the boys are under the age of 15.

“He has given money, from $5 to $10 dollars, to each of the two boys” as inducements,  he said. “His activity has seriously affected Cambodian culture, and violated Cambodian laws.”

Thea said the man arrived in Cambodia on April 4, and that during his stay in Phnom Penh he picked up poor boys to accompany him on walks along the river.

Police, with the assistance of anti-human trafficking group Action Pour les Enfants, picked up on the activity, and followed him around.

He was arrested based on a report that some of the boys provided to APLE’s legal team.

“Our anti-human trafficking police will send this German suspect to Phnom Penh Municipal Court for charging this Wednesday. If he is found guilty, he will be punished with one to three years in prison,” Thea said.

The court is expected to charge the man today after police  accused him of indecent acts against  minors under 15 years of age, said Brigadier General Pen Rath, deputy chief of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police.

The man, he added, was on his way to the airport in order to “escape to his country.”