A 44-year-old woman was sentenced to five years imprisonment on drug trafficking charges and a 28-year-old man received a three-year sentence for drug trafficking and drug abuse charges during a hearing in Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday.

Presiding Judge Suos Sam Ath said that Chhong Meas, 44, was arrested on December 23, 2010, while she was selling yama tablets out of her sunglasses tray at the Soriya bus station in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district.

He added that Hun Piseth, 28, was arrested on June 5, 2010, at his house in Prampi Makara district’s Veal Vong commune in Phnom Penh, where police confiscated about 8 grams of methamphetamine and various drug paraphernalia.  

“Based on the hearings, the evidence and the confessions of the suspects, the court has found that Hun Piseth and Chhong Meas are guilty of drug trafficking and drug abuse [charges],” he said at the hearing yesterday.

“Therefore, the court decided to punish Hun Piseth with three years imprisonment and a fine of 5 million riels, and Chhong Meas with five years imprisonment and a fine of 10 million riels,” Suos Sam Ath said.

Chhong Mea denied the charges against her and denounced the severity of her sentence in court yesterday.

“I was only a sunglasses seller at the taxi station near [Central Market]. I have never been involved with drug trafficking. I think that my charge is very unjust and the sentence is also very serious for me,” she said, adding that she plans to file an appeal against the charges within the next 30 days.