Synopsis: Authorities capture a former NGO director after five years on the run to begin serving a 22-year prison sentence.

The former executive director of the Sovann Komar Organisation was arrested after five years on the run following convictions for child sexual abuse, violence against children and defrauding more than $1.4 million in donations.

Colonel Heng Vannareth, deputy chief of the Internal Security Police Department at the Ministry of Interior, said Sothea Arun was arrested in Kratie province on October 19.

Following questioning, Arun was transferred to Correctional Center 1 in Phnom Penh to begin serving his sentence under a warrant issued by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Col Vannareth said.

Arun served as executive director of the organisation for more than 15 years until his dismissal in August 2019, overseeing the care of more than 50 orphaned and abandoned children.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court convicted him in absentia in 2023 across four separate cases involving fraud, two counts of child rape and violence and neglect. He received eight years in prison for each rape case, four years for intentional violence and neglect, and two years for fraud.

The convictions were upheld by the Phnom Penh Appeal Court and the Supreme Court.

Other former staff members faced conviction in connection with the cases.

Hun Chinda and Thai Sinoun received three-year prison sentences for violence against children, while Ung Veasna Nimol received a two-and-a-half-year sentence.

Pov Sreymom, Arun’s wife and a former foster mother, and Cheath Chanmorakot, a former accountant, each received a 18-month sentence for fraud.