Two sisters from the US have been deported from Cambodia after they were convicted of taking naked photographs inside the country’s famed Angkor Wat complex, officials said yesterday.
Lindsey Adams, 22, and Leslie Adams, 20, were discovered taking nude shots of each other inside the Preah Khan temple at the world heritage site on Friday.
The sisters were both given a suspended six-month prison sentence on Saturday evening on charges of public exposure and making pornography, and are to be banned from entering Cambodia for four years, Siem Reap provincial court prosecutor Koeut Sovannareth said.
“The court decided to expel them from Cambodia,” he said, adding that the women had confessed to making a mistake and were fined US$250.
Siem Reap senior tourism police official Sam Reaksmey said the sisters were deported late on Saturday night.
It is the second time in the past two weeks that tourists visiting the sprawling complex have been caught in the buff.
Three French tourists were deported the previous weekend after they pleaded guilty to taking nude pictures of each other inside another temple.
Cambodian officials say the women’s actions are offensive because Angkor is considered sacred ground.
“They lowered their pants to their knees and took pictures of their buttocks,” Siem Reap senior police official Keat Bunthan told reporters on Saturday.
The deported French men received the same suspended sentence as the US women.
The trio were caught just days after a series of images of Asian women posing nude at Cambodian temples went viral and outraged officials.
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