Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew Hun To yesterday stepped back from his threat to sue Australian newspaper The Age for reporting that police suspected his involvement in an international heroin-trafficking and money-laundering syndicate.

From Melbourne, where the paper is based, Hun To said he now just wanted the newspaper to run a clarification to clear his name, but gave no timeline for when he expected this to occur.

“I have a foreign lawyer that was introduced [to me] by the Australian Embassy in Cambodia. My first step is to contact the Australian paper to [ask them to] write a clarification for me,” he said, adding he had told Australian police the paper had defamed him.

A spokesperson for The Age said yesterday that the newspaper stood by its story’s veracity.

In March, The Age reported that a plan to arrest Hun To in Melbourne was thwarted when Australian embassy officials in Phnom Penh cancelled his visa.

Dave Gordge, First Secretary and Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian embassy in Phnom Penh, could not be reached yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chhay Channyda at [email protected]