Cambodia Denies Allegations that Deported Spanish Researcher was Beaten

Cambodia Denies Allegations that Deported Spanish Researcher was Beaten

| 1 September 2016

PHNOM PENH - Cambodian authorities denied on Thursday that Spanish researcher Marga Bujosa Segado - deported from the country last month - had been beaten, and shrugged off earlier statements to the media charging her with sorcery as a joke.

The researcher was deported on Aug. 17, a day after being detained for participating in a protest along with activists demanding respect for human rights.

Bujosa, a doctoral candidate from the University of Granada researching these activists, told EFE she had been "kicked" while in custody, adding she had complained about the incident to the Spanish Embassy in Thailand.

The beating allegedly took place when Bujosa refused to hand over her phone to officers, who returned it later but only after erasing all of its photographs.

However, the chief of investigations at the immigration department, Uk Heisela, told EFE that while the Spaniard had behaved aggressively with them, they had treated her politely.

In statements to The Cambodia Daily newspaper, Heisela attributed Bujosa's behaviour to drug consumption and justified deleting the pictures to prevent her from using them "to do black magic."

"Everyone knows the Spanish practice magic," he told the newspaper. "They can fly on brooms."

When reached for comment by EFE, Heisela retracted the remarks, calling them "a joke."

Bujosa, who came to Cambodia in 2009, had been studying a women's collective that spearheaded opposition to the eviction of around 4,000 families for an urban development project.

Her deportation came a year and a half after Spaniard Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, was deported for environmental activism.