PRISON NIGHTMARE

An Australian has spent a year in a squalid Cambodian jail—for flying a drone

Filmmaker James Ricketson’s Cambodian prison plea.

Standing among a crowd of thousands at a political rally in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on June 2 last year, Australian documentary filmmaker James Ricketson, 69, did what he does best. With his camera drone he wanted to film the gathering organised by the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) but, “The rally was overseen by several policemen and I was unsure whether or not I needed a permit,” Ricketson, who’s from Sydney’s northern beaches, tells WHO. Still, “In sight of the police I assembled the drone and filmed.”

It was an act he would soon regret. Under suspicion of “spying,” police dragged him off the street the next day and threw him in a squalid, overcrowded cell in Cambodia’s notorious Prey Sar prison. The father of adult children Jesse and Roxanne has been in custody now for a year without charge. Though the investigation into his case is complete, Ricketson, who is currently in a prison hospital cell after contracting pneumonia, has not been told if the matter will go to trial. He shares his story with Michael Crooks.

I am incarcerated in a cell in the prison hospital. By third-world standards, the conditions can most politely be described as primitive. When not in the hospital, I share a cell measuring 6 x 15m with 140 other prisoners. Packed in like sardines. The temperature in the cell often hovers around 37°C at this time of the year. I have a very old fan and I pay $12.50 each month for the electricity. For 140 prisoners, there are three squat toilets. Sleeping is very difficult with only one square metre of living space per

prisoner in the cells. Before his incarceration, Ricketson had made films in Cambodia and worked to help poor families there since the 1990s.

I fell in love with Cambodia in 1996 during the making of a documentary Sleeping with Cambodia— about how the poor and powerless are exploited by the rich and powerful. The film, broadcast on the ABC and in many countries around the world, featured Chanti, a 9-year-old beggar living on the streets of Phnom Penh with her mother. Ricketson helped raise funds for Chanti, who is now 30 and a pregnant mother of eight.

It warms my hearts to see the children growing up healthily, with a roof over their heads and going to school. Over the years I have helped many other poor families with rent, paying medical expenses and most importantly, school fees. On June 2 last year, a rally was held by the CNRP, the opposition to the autocratic government that has ruled under Prime Minister Hun Sen for 32 years.

In the midst of a huge group, in sight of police, I filmed tens of thousands of supporters with my drone. When 13 policemen dragged me off the street, I was not in the process of committing a crime. More than 12 months and a dozen interrogations later, I have yet to be presented with even one piece of halfway credible evidence that I have engaged in espionage.

I am locked in my cell from 3 PM to 8 AM the following morning. They let me out from 8 AM to 10 AM and 2 PM to 3 PM. Prison food, made up primarily of gluggy rice, is inedible. I am very fortunate to be able to buy nutritious food and to have a healthy, if somewhat bland, diet.

In none of my dozen or so interrogations have questions been asked about my flying of the drone. I still have no idea if I was breaking the law, but it seems I should have applied for a permit.

My daughter Roxanne’s help in getting me out of Prey Sar has been invaluable, as has the help of my son, Jesse, his girlfriend, Alex, both of whom live in Cambodia now, and other members of my family.

The Australian Government needs to take significant steps towards protecting the legal and human rights of Australian citizens who find themselves in legal strife in countries in which there is little or no rule of law.

I am not a spy. I am a filmmaker, a journalist and a blogger whose primary objective has been to expose corruption in Cambodia.

■ For more information, search ‘James Ricketson’ at change.org and visit facebook. com/freejamesricketson.