Judges in Mondulkiri province yesterday postponed the hearing of a case against the alleged Dutch accomplice of a Vietnamese national accused of videotaping himself torturing a young boy.
Mondulkiri court spokesman Meas Pros said the trial against Stefan Struik, who faces charges of failing to report mistreatment of a minor and concealing evidence, was now set for June 21.
“The hearing lasted only about half an hour, because there was only one judge ... and therefore on June 21 there will be two judges accompanying the presiding judge.”
Vietnamese suspect Nguyen Tangdung was arrested in Vietnam on December 7 after fleeing a manhunt in Cambodia, where police suspected him of filming himself torturing and sexually abusing a 2-year-old child for four days in August last year after a video circulated on social media.
Struik, his boyfriend, allegedly admitted during interrogation to having encouraged Tangdung to travel to Vietnam, arguing that he thought it was a matter for Vietnamese police.
A Child Protection Unit employee, who was present at the meeting and requested anonymity, said that lawyers “had asked the court to delay the hearing to next time because the lawyers for [Struik] plan to request to release him on bail”.
