Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Judge grills agent of surrogacy

Judge grills agent of surrogacy

Australian national and surrogacy agent Tammy Davis-Charles hides her face as she is escorted from the Phnom Penh court, where she was questioned yesterday.
Australian national and surrogacy agent Tammy Davis-Charles hides her face as she is escorted from the Phnom Penh court, where she was questioned yesterday. Hong Menea

Judge grills agent of surrogacy

Tammy Davis-Charles, the Australian national arrested in November for running a commercial surrogacy business in Cambodia, was questioned in court yesterday in a case that will determine whether surrogacy agents can get prison sentences despite the Kingdom’s lack of regulations for the industry.

Davis-Charles is being charged under Article 332 of the Penal Code, which prohibits acting as an intermediary between adoptive parents and a pregnant woman. She is also charged with possession of fraudulent documents and could face up to two years in prison.

Surrogate mothers recruited by Davis-Charles have also been summonsed to testify, but so far none have appeared, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s Sous Vichearandy. Investigating judge Ros Piseth seized Davis-Charles’s phone and is searching its contacts for information about the women.

Contacted yesterday, one surrogate mother recruited by Davis-Charles said she had not received a summons.

Cambodia’s government is drafting a law to ban commercial surrogacy, but an official from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, one of the ministries charged with drafting the law, said it’s unclear when it will be ready.

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide

  • Ministry orders all schools, public and private, to close for SEA Games

    From April 20 to May 18, all public and private educational institutions will be closed to maintain order and support Cambodia's hosting of the 32nd SEA Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games, said a directive from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. Cambodia will host the

  • Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat

    Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to