Albertan back in Canada after stint in Cambodian jail
TORONTO Two Canadian women who faced charges in Cambodia of producing pornographic images during a party have arrived on home soil.
Eden Kazoleas, 19, of Alberta, and Jessica Drolet, 26, of Ontario, spoke briefly to reporters at Toronto’s Pearson airport Friday night, after a court in Cambodia allowed their release.
The women were among seven foreigners freed after being arrested last month for allegedly posting photos on social media of themselves engaged in sexually suggestive dancing.
A Toronto lawyer who has been involved with the case says they were jailed for more than a week and kept in a cell with more than 45 other women.
In a brief news conference at the airport, Kazoleas thanked Cambodian authorities for their “understanding” throughout the ordeal.
She said she was not aware that attending what she called a “pool party” would be offensive to Cambodian culture, and she apologized to “anyone who feels that it was.”
However, she insisted she did not take part in any “pornographic dancing, or anything that the media suggests I was doing.”
“I’m very disappointed in the way I was portrayed,” she said.
Drolet also thanked the Cambodian authorities and said she didn’t mean to offend anyone by attending the party on Jan. 25 in Siem Reap.
“I’m saddened by the media’s misrepresentation of my actions at this party,” said Drolet.
Kazoleas and Drolet were arrested — along with nationals from the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand — when police raided the commercially organized party at a rented villa.
Police originally detained almost 90 people, but only 10 were held in custody.
Of those, only three remained in detention as of Friday. A court spokesman in Cambodia said he didn’t know their names or nationalities.