All six young German nationals who were briefly detained by police early on Saturday morning after pulling down a ruling party election poster left the country on Monday night, the local head of GIZ, the German government’s development arm, said yesterday.

The volunteers, most of whom were placed at GIZ and the German cultural centre Meta House, were asked to leave by their hosts in cooperation with the embassy, GIZ country director Adelbert Eberhardt said.

“I will say they have not accepted our GIZ rules and I cannot accept this situation . . . I have decided they have to go out from this country and the contract is finished,” he said.

Kouch Chamroeun, governor of Meanchey district where the incident occurred, said he had received an official letter of apology from Eberhardt.

“I received the letter and it’s good to receive it, because they accept their faults and they did not have a bad intention to do that,” he said, adding that no further actions would be taken by authorities.