Cambodian nightmare over
Canadian women back home after being jailed for allegedly making pornographic photos
Two Canadians who faced charges in Cambodia of producing pornographic photos during a party arrived back in Canada Friday night after a court allowed their release.
Eden Kazoleas and Jessica Drolet were among seven foreigners freed after being arrested last month for allegedly posting photos on social media of themselves engaged in sexually suggestive dancing.
The pair arrived Friday evening at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, where they spoke to reporters.
A tearful and shaken Kazoleas called the entire experience “terrifying.”
“I did not know attending that pool party would be offensive to Cambodian culture,” she said.
“The main reason it was so scary is we didn’t speak the native language, so it was confusing.” The two young women had been making their way home since Feb. 5, after their passports were returned to them by Cambodian authorities.
Kazoleas, 19, of Alberta, and 26year-old Drolet, who is from Ontario, were jailed for more than a week and kept in a cell with more than 45 other women, said their Toronto lawyer, Michael Tibollo.
“It was a very confined space,” he said. “They barely had space to lie around or make a bed to lie on, so the conditions were not the best.”
The pair returned to Canada with Tibollo’s daughter, Frances, who negotiated their release, he said.
Unable to go into details because the investigation continues, lawyer Frances Tibollo said that neither had participated, nor encouraged, pornographic behaviour of any kind.
The pictures that have gone viral since the arrests are not from the pool party the women attended, said Frances Tibollo.
They are time stamped from three to five years ago, she said. The women are not in the photos. The women had never been to Cambodia until September 2017.
“I’m saddened by media’s misrepresentation of my actions at this party,” said Drolet.
A court spokesperson in the northwestern Cambodian province of Siem Reap said seven people accused were freed Wednesday. He said three other people remained in detention, but he didn’t know their names or nationalities.