Brian Naswall, the CEO of local private airline Aero Cambodia, was charged yesterday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court with “purchasing child prostitution”.

Deputy prosecutor Seang Sok said in an interview that he had charged Naswall under the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation.

“He now has been transferred to the investigating judge for further questioning”, he said.

If found guilty, Naswall could be sentenced to between two and five years imprisonment.

Major General Pol Pithey, chief of the Interior Ministry’s Anti-Human Trafficking Department, said Naswall was arrested by his forces on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich island on Friday night while “he was engaged in oral sex with a 12-year-old girl in the presence of two other underage girls”.

According to Pithey, Naswall had promised to pay the girls between $15 and $20 each.

“Cambodian police received information from US authorities about this case four months ago . . . but we could not find him” until now, he said.

Khoem Vando, deputy director of field operations at anti-pedophilia NGO APLE, said Naswall is thought to have sexually abused at least six underage girls.