Taing Sokly, the former general consul for the Cambodian embassies in Vietnam and Brunei, was charged by the Phnom Penh court yesterday with allegedly faking documents permitting the export of 100 tonnes of illegal luxury timber from Cambodia to Vietnam in 2013.

The Forestry Department’s complaint against Sokly named Heng Ly Company as the exporter of the wood, said municipal military police official Pou Davy. Sokly claimed he was innocent yesterday, saying he signed the documents, but “did not know that they were fake”.