A court in Cambodia has allowed seven Westerners arrested last month for allegedly posting photos on social media of themselves engaged in sexually suggestive dancing to be released on bail.
The 10 — from Canada, the U.K., Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand — were arrested on Jan. 25 when police raided a party at a rented villa in the northwestern town of Siem Reap and found people “dancing pornographically” at an event organizers called a pub crawl.
A court spokesman in Siem Reap said Thursday that the investigation of the case has been completed but no trial date has been set. He said three other people remained in detention but he didn’t know their names or nationalities.
A release from the Cambodian National Police in January listed Canadians Eden Kazoleas, 20, and Jessica Drolet, 25, as detained along with eight men from other countries.
Lawyer Sourng Sophea said some of the photos posted by his clients showed them at a party, some drinking by a swimming pool and some of the women in bikinis, but none showed them having sex or exposing themselves.
According to the law, he said, they should be deported or have their visas cancelled, but should not have been held in pretrial detention.
A Cambodian prosecutor Samrith Sokhon previously said there is “enough evidence to prove that they violated the law and, therefore, they must face charges,” Sokhon said.
