Nhem Sreyda is fortunate to have survived an attack by her ex-husband in which he threw battery acid on her face, chest, and back. What used to be an undocumented attack against women in Cambodia is finally being penalized by the court system, thanks to a law that passed in December 2011. Sreyda’s ex-husband is the first person to be convicted under this law with five years in prison and ordered to pay 10 million riel (US$2,500).
Sreyda feels her ex-husband should have been sentenced to prison longer and ordered to pay a higher fine. She argues that the law is not yet being properly enforced, since his charge lacked the additional charges of “torture and cruel acts” or “intentional killing” written into the law.
The law is a hopeful starting point to realizing that this sort of behavior will not be accepted and perpetrators will be held accountable, said Ziad Samman, project manager at the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC). CASC recorded 17 acid attacks in 2011 and 26 acid attacks in 2010.
Compiled from: Acid attack perpetrator sentenced under new Cambodian law, IRIN News (30 January 2013).